Suffering is an inescapable part of life. For most, it is also an understandably undesirable part of life. 

But as Christians, suffering is paramount to our worldview and our understanding of how we are saved in Christ.

It may seem counterintuitive, but the Christian faith actually calls for us to embrace suffering.

When we look at our suffering through the eyes of Jesus and the hope of Him rising from the dead, this shift in perspective can turn our own suffering on its head. Our own suffering can be re-envisioned as a road to new life, rather than something to be scorned. 

But how? How does this Christian perspective on suffering change how we respond when life gets hard? 

After all, it’s pretty instinctual to try and avoid suffering.

When life offers us a Cross—like losing a job, death of a loved one, the uncertainty of where life is going, mental illness, etc.— an understandable response to hardship can be to view the suffering as a net-negative experience. Perhaps we try to avoid or distract ourselves from facing the suffering. Or perhaps something terrible happens in life and we become bitter. Why did this happen to me? I didn’t deserve this! Or maybe when suffering hits us hard, our life becomes like a dark cloud. Perhaps suffering comes and it seems like our lives become overwhelmed in heaviness or a growing despair. 

As human beings, it is natural to resist suffering. After all, our brains are literally programmed to send warning signals throughout our bodies when we experience pain or suffering of any kind!

But even with this unavoidable reality of suffering, God gives us an opportunity for inevitable suffering to be transformed into something supernatural. 

There is an ancient Greek word called charmolypê, which roughly translates to “bitter joy” or “joyful mourning.” Orthodox priest Fr. Alexander Schmemman describes this bitter joy as the “bright sadness” of life. 

As Christians we believe that the Cross and the Resurrection are, in a sense, married to one another. Through the Cross of Christ, we can reach the glory of the Resurrection. 

When we are experiencing suffering in life, our Christian faith doesn’t magically dissolve the hardship, but it does reorientate our hearts to view that suffering in a hopeful way.

This does not look like denying our suffering and sadness. There is real pain that we experience. But when we unite our suffering to the Cross of Christ, we also unite ourselves to the glory of his Resurrection. 

What Jesus promises in our suffering is that it’s more than just pain. When we are facing deep pain, we can remember two things: 

First, He gives us hope. Eternity is always piercing through our experience of life right now, beckoning us to remember what comes in the next life. Even as we suffer, our Christian faith reminds us that this is not “it.” Heaven is our home.

Hope can look like knowing that God is standing with you and He has not deserted you, even when your loneliness feels debilitating. Hope can be the knowledge that even when you don’t know or don’t understand the outcome to horrible family disagreement, our great God has ultimately promised us a “peace that surpasses all understanding” (Phil 4:7). Hope can look like having faith that God is still good and that He will always have the last say, even when the world seems irreparably torn by war and division. 

Second, the Christian view of “bright sadness” allows for our suffering to deepen our intimacy with Jesus. 

Suffering makes us vulnerable and instead of vulnerability making us feel unsafe, it can allow us to rely even more heavily on the God who loved us so much that He died for us. Suffering—if we allow it—can open our hearts to an even more intimate relationship with Jesus because through our vulnerability a new level of intimacy can be revealed. 

By dying on the Cross, not only did Christ absorb the punishment for our sins, but He also chose to step into our shoes. When we suffer in life, we can be assured that Jesus is with us. Suffering becomes an opportunity to become even more close to Jesus, just as Simon of Cyrene drew close to Christ when He carried the Cross with Jesus on the road to Calvary. 

Jesus said in the Gospels “come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. . .” (Matt 11:28) When life is bearing down on us, we have a Saviour who assures us that he will not abandon us. He will draw close to us and bear our suffering with us. 

As long as we are on earth, suffering will always be with us. However, that is not the end of the story. Revelation 21:4 says that at the end of our lives and at the end of time that our God will “wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” 

As Christians, we do not escape the suffering and sadnesses of life, but we are able to positively transform our experience of suffering when we remember that our sadness is permeated with the brightness of hope and the joy of being close to Jesus.