Life is messy. Exceedingly messy. But Jesus is real. I must have said those words tens of thousands of times. Actually I said it so much that I ended up writing an entire book about it called Honestly Getting Real about Jesus and our Messy Lives.

I had to write the book because life IS messy and Jesus IS real. Unfortunately, because life is exceedingly messy, suffering is an ever-present reality for people. And not just Christian people either. Everyone is acquainted with suffering. I do not know of one person who hasn't experienced some sort of suffering. This shows us that on this side of eternity, suffering is part of the universal human condition. That is an important understanding for us to grapple with as preachers.

This came into very specific focus for me personally. At Crossroads Community Church, we went through a season that was punctuated with tragedy. We saw a number of young people go home to be with the Lord in rapid and bewildering ways. There was a car accident. There was a drug overdose by one of our young people who had been clean for a long stretch. The son of one of our families took his own life while battling with mental illness. There was a workplace shooting where a young man who had committed his life to Jesus about six months earlier, along with his bride, was shot by a coworker. Brokenness and pain were everywhere. And I, as one of their pastors, struggled with how to help people navigate their own personal tragedies. Not to mention how do I help the Crossroads family understand these events in a deeply Biblical and compassionate way. As I purposed to help others process these events, I found an abundance of resources within the pages of Scripture.

The Bible gives in-depth analysis

One of the reasons I love God's Word so much, and am humbled and honored to be allowed to proclaim it, is because it is so real. The Bible speaks of real life and real people. It's not some fairy tale (no matter what some skeptics want to say). The Bible is as real as your life.

On every page of the Bible we run right into the suffering of humanity. I mean seriously, God creates Adam and then Eve, and almost immediately they disobey God and in the process, break pretty much everything.

From there, it's all about suffering. Suffering to work the ground. Suffering in childbirth. Suffering with family strife. Suffering with broken relationships. Suffering with famine and peril. Suffering with oppressive governments. Suffering as people rebel against God. The Psalter is full of lament Psalms.

Oh and don't forget that the crowning jewel of the Biblical narrative is Jesus' sufferings at Calvary. And not just the physical pain of the scourging, humiliation, and crucifixion either. Who can fathom that kind of suffering? But even worse, Jesus suffered hell on earth as he became the sin that his God-eyes are too holy to behold. It's completely incomprehensible the fullness of suffering that our Great High Priest and King Jesus endured.

So the Bible gives us in-depth analysis of human suffering. Because every single human being is acquainted with suffering, the Bible becomes extraordinarily relevant. What a privilege to get to proclaim such truths. Yet the Bible was not created to be simply read and understood, but also applied. It is in the application of the principles of Scripture that we encounter its relevance. I knew that I needed to address some suffering that the Crossroads family was enduring. So I decided that I was going to do a special message called "How God Works Through Tragedy". We were going through it. We were hurting as a family of faith. There were many tears. But Jesus is real! He was walking with us in the midst of this horrible season. So I took the word TRAGEDY and used it as an acronym. I knew that I needed to allow the Spirit of God to use the Word of God to frame God's plan for us as the people of God.

Be honest about suffering

Now as preachers, we need to be honest about suffering. I know. I know. Of course, we are honest about suffering. We are proclaiming God's Word. Now that's true hopefully. Hopefully you are proclaiming God's Word. But who really likes to talk about suffering? Who really wants to explore the suffering contained in the Bible? Who really wants to weep with those who weep? Who really wants to hold space for a person when they are in the midst of deep suffering? Of course, we want to. But, if we are honest, we really don't want to. We want to fix the situation and be onto the next pressing activity.

Suffering is a challenge for us. It is hard to suffer through suffering. It is hard to preach on suffering and to give it its proper due. We would rather tip our hat to it and move immediately to resolution. But God often does not work that way!

We need to be honest about suffering. In my book Honestly, I call this "Acknowledgement." We need to be willing to truly embrace and acknowledge how messy things can be. We need to acknowledge that in some ways we all suffer. That you are not unique if you are suffering. We need to be honest that the church of Jesus Christ is full of people who are redeemed, yet suffer. As a preacher, let's let suffering have its perfect work.

Let your people know that suffering isn't pointless

But what is suffering's perfect work? Beats me! Honestly, I don't understand the why's of suffering. And neither do you. But suffering isn't pointless in God's economy. It is radically purposeful.

Read that last sentence again. Now read it one more time. Let that sink in.

God, in his perfect wisdom, has a purpose in suffering. Most of the time, we don't understand what that purpose is. Oftentimes, we will never know this side of eternity what God is up to. But just because we do not understand what God is up to does not mean that it is pointless. You see, suffering isn't pointless. It is purposeful.

We see this on every page of our Bibles as well. Yes, suffering is there. But God. God is always leveraging human suffering to bring about his purposes and plans. Whether it is a famine that brings the children of Israel to Egypt so that God could eventually deliver them into the Promised Land or the suffering of the Cross that gives way to an empty tomb, God is at work.

We need to tell our people that. Over and over again. The suffering that they are experiencing is not pointless but purposeful. They can hope in a good God who has a plan, no matter how mysterious it may be.

Also, don't forget to remind them that the suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in the children of God (Rom. 8:18). In the sermon that I shared with the Crossroads family, I let the word TRAGEDY function as an acronym—one idea for each letter of the word. T: We need to Trust Jesus. R: We need to Repent. A: We need to Accept what happened. G: We need to Grieve, but not as those who have no hope. E: We need to Embrace our life as the new normal including these tragedies. D: We need to Defeat our own hopelessness and fears by the victory of Jesus. Y: We need to Yearn for our forever home. We can never let people forget that we are just passing through this messy life and that we are citizens of heaven!

Let Jesus be glorified

Finally, we must never neglect to point the suffering saints to King Jesus. He is a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Jesus knows all of our suffering intimately. Jesus suffered more than any of us ever could. Yet, he always did those things that pleased his Father.

Jesus is the resolution to our suffering. No, I really mean that. Jesus is the resolution to our suffering. No, Jesus does not make the suffering go away. Jesus shows us, by his Spirit, how to allow our sufferings to make us better instead of bitter.

Jesus wants to leverage the tragedies of today to reveal himself in us, through us, and to us. But we have a simple, yet vital, part to play. We must simply respond to Jesus. In the case of the families at Crossroads involved in the tragedies, we have been traveling this path with them. I would love to say that it has been seamless, easy, and without struggle. That would be untrue. But you know what? They all keep on showing up. And not only showing up to Crossroads either. Showing up for life. Showing up for work. Showing up to serve. It's true, like Jacob, each one of them walks with their own unique limp because of their own individual sufferings. But God doesn't only give his children a limp. He also changes their names in the process. That is exactly what God is doing in each of these families, as well as at Crossroads.

Not to mention what he is doing in me as I have the unique and humbling privilege of enjoying a lead pastor's birds-eye view. As you well know, we minister out of the Scriptures and the lessons we have learned. I am grateful that these experiences have made me a much more compassionate and personable pastor. I realize that I cannot fix people's suffering but I can travel the path with them. I have learned that lending a listening ear is often more healing than a canned response. I have learned that Jesus is the Great Shepherd, although he works in mysterious ways, and I don't need to make excuses for him. I am more settled in knowing that Jesus is real because of his faithfulness in times of intense pain—either in my own life or the lives of my family of faith here at Crossroads. I also know that I still have a ways to go on this journey in ministry with lots of growing still to do.

Jesus transforms our suffering into some of the most beautiful things we ever could learn. Our suffering becomes the curriculum to see Jesus formed in us and flowing through us. This is why one Puritan called his personal sufferings his "precious pain." In the midst of his suffering, Jesus was revealing himself to him, in him, and through him to a needy world.

The message "everyone suffers" is hopeless. The message "everyone suffers but Jesus is real" is transformational!

Daniel Fusco is the Lead Pastor of Crossroads Community Church in Vancouver, WA.