Why do good people suffer?

After my usual fellowship with Cornel at the SHC Canteen (not omitting the fact that he also complaining why it took me so long to finish my cup of KoPi O), then I proceeded to my office.

Routine, routine and routine, to sit down and check my email. While browsing through my inbox, I note that there is a new mail from my good friend from KL. Knowing the fact that what he had being through, in his mail, he posed a classic question to me: WHY DO GOOD PEOPLE SUFFER?” Hmm….I does recall last year my friend did ask me exactly the same question. (right Vinny?). Is this a true fact of life (rebuttable or irrefutable?)

Over the years in my journey of faith, I have the opportunity of meeting people from various classes of life (this includes people who are non-Christian). More often than not, other does like to share their problem with me. It is not such a big problem of keeping all of the sharing to me (in secret and P & C!) However, the obstacle I faced is really how not to get myself emotionally and personally involved!!!

So, I do have question too. Why God? Why do good people always have to suffer? Perhaps, the exact and correct answer only God knows. But what I do know is that one primary reason God allows us to suffer is so we can identify with others in our prayers. Until and unless we suffer, we tend to stereotype others who suffer as inferior and weak. (Hmm… may be something he did in his past life…No, no, no, cancel that in Jesus name, Christian dun believe in reincarnation!!!). Consequently, we have little patience with them without realizing the truth that (may be the absolute truth) Christ lived among the rejected and suffering.


So at the end of the day, when you avoid pain, you limit your usefulness to God. But when you suffer and through the comfort you receive in your trials, you may learn to comfort other. (Perhaps you may want to check 2 Cor 1:4 which implies that if we have never needed comforting, we won’t know how to comfort others.)

Under the circumstances, you may be able to pray effectively for others since you can identify with their needs, spiritually and emotionally, you would be able to feel what they feel and understand their hurts. In short, when you share in another’s pain, trust me, you will pray with an earnestness you have never known before.

Please dun forget that God is always with us, He felt what we felt and He will never abandon us.

As a psalmist would sing:

"Though the fires burn around me
Though the tempest rage and roar
And the cares of life come to steal my heart away

Though the giant stand before me
Though the enemies draw near
And the voices come to discourage and dismay

You prepare a table for me
And You bid me come and dine and I rest in peace
With a confidence divine
I will stand on the hope I have in you
I can rest in the hope I have in You
I can walk in the hope I have in You"

By the way, for those interested in knowing the theological aspect of it you may want to read the following reference:

Excerpts from the Encyclical Letter of John Paul II, Feb. 11, 1984- “Salvific Doloris”- on Christian Meaning of Human Suffering:

“Human suffering evokes compassion; it also evokes respect, and in its own way it intimidates.” “Insofar as the words "suffering" and "pain", can, up to a certain degree, be used as synonyms, physical suffering is present when "the body is hurting" in some way, whereas moral suffering is "pain of the soul". In fact, it is a question of pain of a spiritual nature, and not only of the "psychological" dimension of pain which accompanies both moral and physical suffering The vastness and the many forms of moral suffering are certainly no less in number than the forms of physical suffering. But at the same time, moral suffering seems as it were less identified and less reachable by therapy.”

“Christianity proclaims the essential good of existence and the good of that which exists, acknowledges the goodness of the Creator and proclaims the good of creatures.”

“Love is also the richest source of the meaning of suffering, which always remains a mystery: we are conscious of the insufficiency and inadequacy of our explanations.”