Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

-2 Corinthians 1:1-4

Paul’s theology of suffering is so radically different than what I’ve grown up with, to what I’ve become accustomed. Paul links suffering–affliction–with comfort and mercy. That in itself isn’t so unbelievable. But Paul goes much further. For Paul, there is no comfort apart from affliction. The substance of comfort is only experienced in light of suffering.

How can the one who never suffers experience comfort? How does a man who has never felt cold appreciate the warmth of the sun? How does the child who has never wanted for food relish the taste of bread on his tongue? No; obviously, it’s the man freezing, frostbitten, pursued by death that celebrates warmth. It’s the emaciated child who longs for the smallest scrap from the master’s table. This is the heart of a desperate thankfulness and gratitude.

There is simply no comfort outside of affliction. Can God’s character of mercy be displayed outside of a fallen world? Outside a suffering sin-wracked trial?

Yes, there is a day when suffering ends–a day when there are no more tears, no more deaths, no more pains. But is not much of the joy of that to-be the absence of suffering? And absence implies knowledge–the realization that something (suffering) that could be is not. We rejoice and long for a suffering-less day in light of the suffering we now experience.

Our joy will be the end of suffering–the removal of what we now know, the permanent comfort, the everlasting mercy of God’s presence driving back eternally the darkness of our pain and affliction.

In light of these things, though, we do not wait to grasp joy; we find joy in suffering now. Why? Because, first, suffering reveals to us God’s character. We see he is merciful; we see he is the God of comfort. And we cannot see these things apart from suffering. Paul writes this: “…with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” Apart from affliction, there is no comfort by God. We rejoice because suffering causes us to encounter God.

Second, suffering sweetens the promise of Christ’s coming return. It creates a deep and stark contrast between the now and the what-is-coming. It sharpens the anguish and ache in us. It gives us something to sing toward–for which to long and ache. Suffering points to our brokenness, but more, to God’s coming consummation.

He is coming, and something that is very much now–this present suffering–will end.

There is hope, and Christ is that hope.

We know him now not in spite of suffering; or even through and in our suffering. We know him deeply because of our suffering.

Suffering is not enjoyable, but it is a means by which we may joy–knowing God in an intimacy only possible as we see his mercy and cling to his promises.

Come Lord Jesus.