My friend exclaimed, “We were driving highway speeds when an old man took a left turn right in front of me.  I rammed my foot on the brake, just an instant before slamming into him. The impact shattered my right foot, ankle, leg, thigh and hip.”

He’s been in and out of a dozen surgeries, struggled with addictions to pain medication, been hired and fired repeatedly, and been to suicide therapy three times. The other day he asked, “Do you think that God was repaying me for my past sins?”

Sometimes, in our attempts to understand the mystery of suffering we blame ourselves.  Some even try to “pardon God” as we subconsciously say, “I sure deserved this punishment.”

Two thousand years ago, someone asked Jesus about the Galileans whom Pilate had killed while they were at worship, mixing their blood with the blood of the sacrifices on the altar.  They specifically wanted to know if the murdered Galileans were worse sinners than others. (Luke 13)

Jesus immediately corrected this kind of thinking with a warning that we all are guilty of sin, and no one is innocent.  He then made it clear that no one knows their day or hour – and called repentance a top and continual priority for all of us.

Suffering is complicated with no easy answers.    

It might help to remind ourselves that our good Lord Jesus, the founder of our faith, willingly suffered a horrible gruesome death to pay the price to forgive our sins. Perhaps during our seasons of suffering we can find comfort as we come to realize more than ever, “You’ll never know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.”