Suffering is inevitable. Despair isn’t.
By Michelle Jenck, M Ed
There but for the Grace of God . . . This is the thought I often have when I see someone less fortunate, when I see a beggar on the street or a drug addict who is lost to this world. I have a great deal of sympathy for people who struggle. The way I look at it, I could just as easily have been born into such a life. Into different circumstances, in a different place, with a different culture, family and social class. I’ve been blessed to live the life I have lived.
And, while I have been fortunate enough to have been born into a life of certain advantages, it has also been a life with its share of difficulties. So, why have I been spared the despair? Why do some people lose all hope while others don’t? Is resilience something we are born with or something we learn?
I often come back to the scripture verse, Romans 5:1-5, where St. Paul explains that, in suffering we can boast because suffering leads to endurance, which leads to proven character, and that leads to hope. He finishes by saying this is all available to us by the Grace of God.
This has been true in my life. My mettle has been forged through fires of varying degrees. I’ve experienced emotional turmoil and trauma at relatively young ages. These experiences forced me, many times over, to choose what kind of person I wanted to become. I was often tempted to give in and even did so at times but I kept being called back from the precipice. Early in my life, I was fortunate enough to discover a critical truth. No matter what happens to me, only I can choose how I will adapt, learn and grow from adversity.
The peace that comes through grace isn’t something we earn or fight for. It simply is. It exists like the blue sky exists above the clouds. This peace is available to us on the other side of every encounter with suffering. It is both a reprieve and a reminder that we can find meaning in our suffering. I wonder if we succumb to despair when we think each experience of suffering is the end and not simply another wave in the ebb and flow of our lives.
Suffering is inevitable. Things happen that hurt us. People leave. They die. We lose our job, get divorced. We get cancer. Grace reminds us that challenges – even tragedies – are inevitable but that doesn’t mean they are the end of our story. What matters is how we respond and who we become because of them.
Through the Grace of God, I have come to believe that all things work for the good. I was not spared suffering and yet I have not despaired. And I thank God for that.
Thank you for your interest. Follow more of my work on Substack at The Tao te Mitchy, PQ Initiative, and Divergent Ideas.
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Photo by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu on Unsplash
