Timothy Keller, in his new book, “Walking with God through Pain and Suffering,” says that our culture treats pain and suffering as things to be avoided at all costs. As Christians, we often adopt a similar posture, but Keller suggests that suffering can play an important role in our lives:
[Max] Scheler writes: “It is not the glowing prospect of a happy afterlife, but the experienced happiness of being in a state of grace of God while in throes of agony that released the wonderful powers in the martyrs.” Indeed, suffering not only is made bearable by these joys, but suffering can even enhance these joys, in the midst of sorrow. “The Christian doctrine of suffering asks for more than a patient tolerance of suffering. …The pain and suffering of life fix our spiritual vision on the central, spiritual goods of…the redemption of Christ.”