Life is suffering. We must not take the comfort of modern luxuries for granted, expecting that the default experience of life is one of freedom. Suffering comes often from the experience of pain, which as humans, we will encounter frequently in our lives. And to further worsen the situation, each of our experiences of suffering is ultimately experienced alone. No one will truly, fully understand.
Knowing this, then, how is one expected to live? What meaning is there to life to make such difficult experiences worth suffering through?
A simple solution would be to try to minimize the pain we experience by making the right sacrifices in our lives, so that hopefully we can achieve greater amounts of pleasurable experiences over miserable ones. The problem with this mindset - admirable as it may be if we include our community in our plan to minimize pain - is that we need to anxiously make the right decisions within our lifetime so the envisioned solutions come into fruition before we pass.
But what if others stand in our way? Must we suffer longer and possibly encounter death before fruit is experienced? Another problem is that this also seems to generally lead us to make decisions that serve the desires of our flesh and impulsivity, often at the expense of our future selves and future generations of humans.
So then, what is the solution? I recognize the audacity of claiming to have an answer to such a magnitude of a question, but I am offering a framework that has benefitted me well which I hope may provide additional perspective that can be tested in a practical way.
And the framework that confronts our problem of suffering is a Christian one: We each have a story of love to participate in.
Four questions come from this:
We will address the first two questions in this first post, and the second two in the next post that will be written later.
The ultimate evidence to know that life is meant to be a story of love is from the person of Jesus Christ, who is the model of the story. But how does that relate to us? Let’s explore two main points:
In Jesus Christ, we have received the fullest revelation that death is not final for humans, providing our ultimate basis of hope. With this hope, we are free to live a life not bound in anxiety - trying to manipulate outcomes to fulfill the desires of our flesh and impulsivity, or even noble desires like trying to minimize pain. The never-ending, tiresome pursuit of needing control no longer has power over us. Even in the face of death, we are free. Christ, our salvation, is our freedom and the evidence for it.
In Jesus Christ, we have received the fullest revelation that the defining nature of God is love.
I have written a bit about what I think love is here. To sum it up, my current position on what love is, is participating in building up. Even more specifically as humans: participating in building up with the one who is the ultimate builder.
So the one that is the ground of all existence ultimately values love, is love, and loves. And that is God. From this revelation sparked the line of thought that I have been trying to work out with more clarity: Love creates so that it, love, can be magnified. This is accomplished through the experience of love, and the greatest experiences are stories. The magnification of love is then fulfilled through Love and it’s creations harmoniously participating in the stories/experiences written and pre-destined by Love. Glory comes from the fullness of the experience of Love’s stories.
Some developments from this revelation is that love is the defining trait of God, of divinity. It is the Imago Dei in each one of us - we are each a finite instance of love. There is much that can be explored with these ideas, but let us move on.
From these two revelations, we can arrive at the conclusion that we have been given the knowledge that provides the basis of freedom from the power of death, and with this freedom, we can choose to participate in the story of love that God, who is love, has set for us - our purpose as creation. Our life is meant to be an experiential performance of love to magnify Love.
So how does knowing that we have a story of love to participate in address our problem of pain and suffering?
Firstly, believing in the resurrection of Jesus and having hope that death is not our finality becomes the foundation of a transformed way of living. We are freed from the mindset that we have to control our destiny, which is a task we are drawn to in our hubris, but brings much burden and suffering because the desire for control is enslaving. With each decision, instead of worrying about what possible outcomes and dangers lie ahead that may disrupt our life and comfort, we can look forward to the possibilities and challenges with excitement and adapt to whatever comes our way.
Secondly, knowing God has a story for us provides a direction that we can move forward in. Finding direction and purpose by intently seeking God, we may even choose to endure pain and suffering for the vision of love we believe that God is calling us to. It is like what the great philosopher Nietzsche said, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” And knowing that we have a story to live, a role to play in the great narrative of love, we are given our why.
And thirdly, speaking about narratives, the greatest ones demonstrate overcoming difficulties. A narrative without conflict, struggle, and challenge is an empty one. I believe our admiration towards certain movies hints to us what life is about. A movie with a protagonist in a perpetual state of bliss and comfort is not one that is desirable to watch. A movie where the protagonist has to confront suffering, endure pain, but overcomes it for something greater, especially the call of love, is much more desirable. Like the movies we admire, we admire people who have great stories. To be one of these people with great stories, an acceptance of challenge that will definitely bring suffering is necessary. And the model we have for the greatest story to imitate, is the story of Christ.
To summarize how participating in our story of love addresses the problem of life’s suffering: We are freed from the enslaving mindset of needing control of our lives. Instead, we have a story to discover, a role to play in God’s story of love that will provide us direction and purpose. And great stories come from the willingness to endure suffering from challenging situations for the sake of love, exemplified by Jesus.
And so, with all this said, I hope you can experience the freedom of living in Christ, participating in the story of love God has intended for you, bringing much peace and joy despite suffering because you are fulfilling your purpose. May all of creation be glorified through the wonder that is the workmanship of God. Amen.