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Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5)
This verse from Romans has always been especially significant to me. But is it true? If we let it, does suffering produce character. Or does perseverance (overcoming suffering) produce character? Or is suffering irredeemable?
My grandson plays the drums and hopes to make a career out of it. Recently, we watched Whiplash together. Whiplash is a 2014 movie that describes the struggle between Andrew Neiman, a young ambitious jazz drummer and Terrence Fletcher, his tyrannical music teacher. Fletcher acts like a marine drill instructor, constantly breaking down his pupil by vile insults, humiliation and even physical beating. He views his mission as producing a truly great musician. We learn off-screen that one of his protègès committed suicide, presumably because he couldn’t take the pressure Fletcher was applying. Andrew fights through his suffering, literally until his hands bleed, the trials are so great that he gives up his music. Actually, this is one of the many times Andrew gives up. But the movie doesn’t end there. In the last few scenes, Andrew redeems his suffering by returning to the stage, overcoming one last obstacle, and taking over the concert with a memorable drum solo. In the end he and Fletcher wordlessly show their respect for each other.
In Romans 5:3, Paul says “suffering produces endurance.” (The King James translation is “tribulations worketh patience”) The Greek word here for “produces” is katergázomai, which means literally to “work down to the end point,” i.e., “to bring to an exact decisive finality.” In Whiplash, suffering does produce endurance and, and, we are meant to believe, endurance produces character.Does this always happen? A look around our world says “No.” Suffering sometimes leads to more suffering, to a turning away from God, to a spiral into denial and despair.
When does God redeem suffering and allow it to create character and then hope? Only when we are ready to listen to God’s voice. This process only works for those who love and follow God. If you worship God, then Paul’s words make sense. If you are an atheist, then suffering is a proof that the world is absurd. And if you are a seeker, then the problem of suffering leaves you confused at best.
Albert Camus, the French philosopher and novelist wrote, “I shall not, as far as I am concerned, try to pass myself off as a Christian in your presence. I share with you the same revulsion from evil. But I do not share your hope, and I continue to struggle against this universe in which children suffer and die.”
But this is not the view of many Christian writers.
- “Affliction is the best book in my library.” (Martin Luther)
- “I can say with complete truthfulness that everything I have ever learned in my seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained.” (Malcolm Muggeridge)
- “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” ( (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain)
- The next post will look a bit more deeply at the biblical view of suffering.