Suffering

When Pain Has Purpose

KATIE POLSKI | CONTRIBUTOR I have a friend who’s been going through a rough season. I’m not sure “rough” is an adequate word. Deep pain, unimaginable pain, has touched her marriage, her kids, and her parents all at once. She expressed recently that she simply didn’t know how to put one foot in front of the other. Other friends are currently grieving an unwanted diagnosis and the awful effects of chemo. Several sisters are confused about how to help aging parents; and still, many are just exhausted, silently disappointed, or deeply lonely. The honest question we ask in seasons of hurt and hardship is, “Why would God allow this?” As honest and real as that question is, so is our response to pain in this life: anger, numbness, and striving to “just get through.” But what would it look like to stop viewing suffering as an inconvenient detour…as an awful back road you just have to survive to reach something better? What if instead you saw your pain as part of your life with Christ… as part of belonging to his family? Suffering is and will be a part of life until Jesus returns. We were never promised otherwise. In John 16:33, Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Yes, there is real pain, but do you hear the hope in that verse? Because Jesus has overcome the world, defeating sin at its root, those who belong to God can trust that even our suffering is not meaningless. In His sovereign wisdom, God works through every hardship for His good and perfect purposes and for the good of His children...

When Pain Has PurposeChristina Fox2026-07-25T19:38:09+00:00

Suffering and Our Suffering Servant

DIANA SCHEIDLER | GUEST Suffering. No one wants to suffer. Yet we all do. What does it look like to suffer? What does it mean to suffer? It looks different for everyone. We all walk a different path in life. However, we all have a suffering servant who has gone before us who bore all our sin and shame. He now comes alongside us in our suffering to remind us that we are not alone. He knows what it is to suffer. Indeed, the suffering He endured was so much more than we will ever have to endure. Suffering can, does, and will take on many forms. Chronic and terminal illnesses, infertility, loss, divorce, unruly children, desires that never come to fruition, and familial difficulties are just a few of the ways that we suffer here on earth. Can joy be found even among these difficult times? When keeping your eyes on our Lord Jesus Christ, our suffering servant, yes. Joy can be found. In my own life, I have gone through various trials that have caused me and my family to suffer. The biggest one that has caused all of us to suffer long though, was receiving my multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis in February of 2015, just a year and a half after my husband and I were married. While those two words were scary to hear, we finally had an answer as to why my body always seemed to react negatively. I dealt with numbness and tingly legs and face. I struggled (and still do) with leg spasms. There are times when I am unable to think of words and come up with silly sounds instead. I stumble and I fall, and I get overwhelmed by too many sounds easily. And yet, the Lord has been so gracious to me even within this diagnosis. He has never left me and never will. When I cry out to Him in pain, He restores my soul for He is with me. When I ask Him, “Why, Lord?” the answer is a peace that surpasses all understanding for I know it is within His plan. And His plan is so much higher and greater than my own....

Suffering and Our Suffering ServantChristina Fox2026-07-18T19:00:19+00:00

Hope and Lament in Suffering

JULIANNE ATKINSON |GUEST A man with no home to call his own was discharged from the emergency department after a cardiac event. He was no longer in critical condition and had outstayed his financial capabilities at the hospital. The homeless mission couldn’t provide appropriate recovery care with no medical staff and was unable to responsibly care for him overnight. That Alaskan winter night, he passed away on a church’s steps waiting for the doors to open in the morning. The despair of wondering how this could have happened spread like a contagion at the rescue mission. Sorrow and guilt mingled under the surface of every conversation. There were so many aspects to mourn and grieve. Navigating Suffering in this World If you’re in ministry laboring in the harvest, you are always close to deep suffering. You’ve seen financial reversals, cancer diagnosis, abuse victims, and mental illness. You may have watched those desperate for approval, with a desire to live in sin, lead them to leave the faith in a wake of destruction. You’ve likely known those with regretted sins that still plague them many years down the road. The enemy would have us isolated in our suffering, but Scripture does not allow that option. In 2 Corinthians 6 Paul describes the true Christian life leading through pandemonium and crucible to address a prosperity gospel being peddled as the gospel of Christ....

Hope and Lament in SufferingChristina Fox2026-06-17T13:48:09+00:00

God’s Many Mercies for Our Many Miseries

ELIZABETH TURNAGE | CONTRIBUTOR As I sat down to revisit this beloved passage from 2 Corinthians 1, I received a text from a young friend. She has suffered many serious health challenges for a person in her late twenties. In her text, she asked for prayers for some new health concerns. As I was responding, she sent another text, “Also, please pray for my friend. He starts chemo today. I told him I would be glad to talk with him whenever he needs a listening ear since I know what it’s like.” How, I wondered, does a young woman who has suffered so intensely so early in life face her own concerning health news with such calm while at the same time asking for prayer for a dear friend? I believe she can do so because she grasps what the apostle Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 1:3-11, where he lays out the connection between suffering and comfort, both from a theological and personal perspective...

God’s Many Mercies for Our Many MiseriesChristina Fox2026-05-25T18:06:41+00:00

Book Review on Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR It happened in an instant. While on vacation at a national park, I slid on wet tile in the visitor’s center, throwing my feet in the air and ramming my shoulder into a wall. I knew instantly that my shoulder would never be the same. In the two-hour ambulance ride to the nearest hospital, I remember calling out “Lord just take me.” The pain was unbearable. A dear friend who suffers excruciating pain from cancer suggested Paul Tripp’s book, Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn’t Make Sense, as a source of encouragement after the accident. Truth be known, I was feeling exactly as the title of this book states; that life doesn’t make sense. Why me, why now, why would God allow this when I serve as a helper to my disabled husband, and why now when I can also help with my grandchildren? From the first page of Paul Tripp’s book, I identified with his sudden suffering. He casually walked into the hospital emergency room at the advice of his physician with mild but persistent symptoms. Quickly there were four specialists examining him, talking about dialysis, and ordering tests. Soon his body was going into full-body spasms with pain so intense he was screaming in despair, “God help me!” This would be the first of six hospital stays, each with kidney surgery, over the next two years. Tripp was discouraged, disappointed and in spiritual battle, asking why, in the prime of his career, when he was doing God’s work, would God allow this set of circumstances which would leave him physically damaged forever, devoid of energy, and without a major source of his income. Many good books have been written on suffering, but this one draws you in as Tripp recounts his personal story and also uses examples of suffering beyond physical pain from his years as a counselor, including relational, spiritual, and circumstantial suffering. And because at the time of his writing, he was in a place where his life didn’t make sense, he offers practical and hopeful theology for every sufferer’s struggles. Tripp suggests that our lives are shaped both by what we suffer and by the background we bring to our suffering. For him, pride in his physical health and in his numerous accomplishments made him self-reliant, an idol he was not happy to face. Further, his new physical weakness was a surprise disruption to his carefully planned and executed life. These realizations tugged at his heart, exposing what was really inside. The first half of the book delves into the various trappings that can control our thoughts: fear, envy, doubt, denial and discouragement. He reminds us that nothing we suffer is ultimate or eternal. God is eternal, He is present with His children forever, His power does not wane, and He alone determines our destiny. He is the good news that every sufferer needs. Our suffering is not in the way of God’s plan; it is part of God’s plan. He never lets us alone in our suffering and His presence changes everything...

Book Review on Suffering: Gospel Hope When Life Doesn’t Make SenseChristina Fox2026-04-18T19:49:23+00:00

God’s Faithful Sovereignty When Things Don’t go as Planned

HANNAH HAGARTY | GUEST My husband and I have two failed adoptions, chronic illness, and an unexpected mission field exodus to our names. Things not going as planned? I may be an unwilling expert on the subject. But it turns out, being an expert on disappointment can mean possessing a deep appreciation for the goodness of God’s sovereignty. We readily said yes when asked to adopt the two little sisters in our home. As foster parents for nearly half of our married lives, Mali had come to us at eighteen months old. When her sister Ziva was born, we picked her up from the hospital. Birthdays and holidays flew by with our biological children and the little girls until they had been with us nearly two years. And then, with one phone call, we were told the case plan had changed from adoption to reunification. The girls were to be handed over to a biological relative investigated for crimes against a child. It didn’t matter which way anyone turned that fact about - sense was found nowhere in it. Years later, my husband and I and seven of our children were living in West Asia, sent out by the church to do mission work, never intending to live in the States again. For thirteen months, we worked our assigned jobs, learned the culture, and did the difficult work of progressing in the local language. Our kids flourished. And then, with another phone call, devastating news from the States immediately put me on the thirty-one hour flight back....

God’s Faithful Sovereignty When Things Don’t go as PlannedChristina Fox2026-02-27T20:54:52+00:00

Weak at Work: How God Supplies Our Strength

JENNIFER WHITE |GUEST Editor’s Note: this article contains stories of infancy and pregnancy loss. My husband, a newly elected church elder, put the car in park. We locked eyes. “Wait,” I said. “Before we go in, let’s think through what we are going to say.” We agreed to tell the young couple that we loved them. We wanted to remind them of God’s great love for them. We planned to pray and offer various resources available through our church. As we entered the hospital room, we both froze. The mom sat in bed quietly crying. The teary father held their baby boy wrapped in a crinkly cooling blanket, protecting his body and skin so his siblings could meet him. He had died unexpectedly the day before in an emergency c-section. As we looked in the parents’ eyes, we crumbled, grieving and crying with this family. We prayed the truths of God’s word over their lives: that He is near to the brokenhearted, that He loves little children, that He is our shepherd and our rock. Even in the newness of grief and shock of pain, they rehearsed God’s truths along with us. Then, we left them to hold their baby boy, to grieve and cry together. As we exited, I felt overwhelmed and helpless. “Lord,” I prayed, “are you sure? Am I the right person for this job? Was I capable or strong enough? Did we say the right things? Did we stay long enough? Too long? Did our visit make things easier or harder for these grieving parents?” When We Are Inadequate This hospital visit happened during my third week serving as Women’s Ministry Director at my church....

Weak at Work: How God Supplies Our StrengthChristina Fox2026-02-27T20:49:31+00:00

When You Want to Trade in Your Specific Clay-Like Conditions

ELLEN DYKAS | CONTRIBUTOR But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. (2 Corinthians 4:7) I recently told a friend that I’m willing to participate in the sufferings of Christ; but can it be on my terms and in the form, timing, and intensity of my choosing?! I see the irony and hypocrisy of such a statement yet the truth is, it’s how I feel and think sometimes, even if unconsciously. Maybe like me, you delight in being a clay jar filled with the treasure of Jesus, yet struggle when the clay feels extra fragile, sad, or worn out. In those conditions, I can be tempted to want to click a ‘return’ button as simply as it is to send back an unwanted Amazon package. In the past few years, certain aspects of my clay-ness have felt extra hard. The impact of menopause on my body and ongoing disrupted sleep. Health related anxiety and the physiological, emotional, and spiritual impact of that. I transitioned into a (mostly) full time equipping and content development role which has been truly such a gift to have a dedicated season to pour out what I’ve learned in the years I’ve served with Harvest USA. Yet, it’s also been unexpectedly lonely, as I’ve been at my desk more than face to face with women as I was for my first sixteen years. What’s a girl to do?...

When You Want to Trade in Your Specific Clay-Like ConditionsChristina Fox2026-02-15T14:32:53+00:00

A Testimony in Sorrow

JENNA BOGARD | GUEST As my dear pastor neared the end of his life in 2022, I wept by his hospital bed. All I could utter was, “Jim, you are going to be with Christ soon!” His face lit up; that was all he wanted. His intimacy with Christ was apparent to everyone who knew him. Prior to his death, he repeatedly urged me to dive into the Song of Solomon as it ministered to him greatly in his last few months of suffering with ALS. At the time, I dismissed his claim that the book had anything to do with Christ and the church and even teased him for holding such beliefs. I wish he was still here so I could humbly admit my error and thank him for pointing me to some of the most beautiful truths of Christ that I’ve only begun to uncover. A Reflection of the Heart Dr. David Murray’s exposition of Song of Solomon chapter five was particularly impactful as it so perfectly described my spiritual condition at the time: utterly weak, fearful, depressed, and desperate.[i] As the chapter opens, the groom is at the door, calling the bride to open the door (v. 2). However, the bride is apathetic to his call. “I had put off my garment; how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them?” (v.3) The bride didn’t want to put in the effort, a situation we usually find ourselves in when we have temporarily satisfied ourselves with the lust of our idols...

A Testimony in SorrowChristina Fox2026-02-14T18:25:24+00:00

The Call to Remember

LINDSAY FUNCHES | GUEST Apart from the two times when I actually forgot my children, the worst episode of mother forgetfulness in my life occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, when I had four children under the age of six. Having just moved to the area, we had been attending our new church for two months. Mary Boyde was five, Sam was three, Steele was nineteen months old, and Hayley was two months old. Steele had Crouzon Syndrome, a craniofacial syndrome like the boy in the movie Wonder, serious medical issues, and literally a dozen doctors. He wasn’t sleeping at night because of severe sleep apnea. Needless to say, I was exhausted as Christmas approached. As is often the case, our new church performed a magnificent Christmas pageant every year with the Sunday School children. Oddly enough, they held this Christmas pageant during the Sunday School hour...

The Call to RememberChristina Fox2025-12-12T12:00:54+00:00