Pain and suffering has the power to frustrate our self-sufficiency, but realizing we are not in control is also one of suffering’s biggest blessings. It’s one of difficulty’s paradoxical comforts. The fear and pain of being out of control stand before us as doorways to something very good. It’s only when we give up the delusion that we’ve been or can be in greater control that we can find rest in the One who is in control in our place.
Suffering proves that helplessness is the doorway to healing, freedom and transformation. It is only when we abandon our independence that we find rest in one greater. Hopelessness is the only pathway to hope. When we forsake our trust in our power, we’re then ready to entrust ourselves to the power of another. Our smallness and weakness aren’t our greatest dangers; the greatest danger is the delusion that we are bigger and stronger than we are or ever will be. Here is pain and suffering’s paradox: the very things we would do anything to avoid, the very things that confront our understanding of who we are, and the very things that cause us the most pain become the very things that usher into our lives the blessings of the help, hope, peace, and rest that we all long to experience.