Obviously, we can’t look at all the reasons, but one of the foremost is our freedom of choice. God loves us enough to allow us to choose to serve Him or not. When we make wrong choices, all too often such choices bring suffering, not only on us, but on our families and friends as well. Sometimes our sins hurt people we don’t even know. Adam & Eve’s choice to sin introduced physical death into the world, which touches all of us. Oh yes, we will all die (unless the Lord returns first), but many times before that we will be touched by the death of friends and loved ones. At such times, we are forcefully reminded that this world, as enjoyable as American life may be, is imperfect at best. We are also reminded of the place where there is no sorrow, no death, no separation, no pain. No doubt that is why Solomon said it is better to go to the house of mourning then to go to the house of feasting. Because God is just, mankind must receive the fruits of our collective actions and all too often that brings suffering.

But another reason that suffering exists is for our growth. The expression "no pain, no gain" is true not only in sports, but is also true in the rest of life. We all have a tendency to reach our comfort zone and get stuck there. Generally, the only time we will move from that is when we’re forced to. A friend told me years ago, "There must be breakdowns before there can be breakthroughs." and I have seen that to be true. If everything is working fine, why change it? Suffering forces us not only to leave our comfort zone sometimes, but often makes it too obvious to ignore that we need God. As we deal with the loss of a spouse, a parent, a child, there is nothing any one can say to make the "hurt" go away. They say "time heals all wounds" and I suppose that is at least partially true, but the void left takes at least a year to begin to fill—what about that first year? That’s were our heavenly Father comes in. You can cry to Him in prayer as often as you need to—He won’t get "tired" of you. You can give Him the things that you can’t handle (1 Pet. 5:7). Learn to let it go and let God take care of it—He can do a much better job anyway.

The same is true with other kinds of suffering we endure. And every time we overcome the obstacle in front of us, we grow stronger—stronger in faith, stronger in determination, stronger in our humility. Just as hot steel used to be tempered (made stronger) by immersion in cold water, in the same way we are tempered by the sufferings we endure and overcome. And even when we don’t overcome, we can become stronger if we learn from these experiences so that we can overcome in the future. The theme of the book of 1st Peter seems to be growth through suffering. While we are not persecuted in the same way that the Christians to whom Peter wrote were, we are persecuted and we still suffer. As we begin our study of this great book, let us learn its lessons so that we may truly grow stronger from the sufferings that we endure. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" is the statement of the Apostle Paul, but he was not the only one who could make such a statement. You and I are children of the same God, who has promised to provide for ALL our needs.