In September of 1986, I was at work when my boss come to me and told me that I needed to go home. When I arrived at home, my mother met me at the door and told me that my dad was dead. He had been robbed and murdered. Three days later he would be laid to rest by a military color guard. All that was left of him was a folded flag and memories. It was at that point that I, a new Christian, was introduced to the reality that I am not exempt from the suffering of this world. In the years since my dad's death, I have come to recognize that suffering and life are intertwined.

As I get older, I have come to the conclusion that there is a relationship between the maturity of my faith and how I handle suffering. You see it is when we face suffering that the level our faith in God and our relationship with Him is revealed. Each of us knows someone whose faith has been devastated because of suffering in their life. If we are going to grow and mature, sooner or later we are going to have to come to grips with the issue of suffering. We are going to have to move from a level where we ask "Why?" to a level where we understand the realities of suffering. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 the apostle Paul shares how he came to grips with his suffering. What we are seeing the apostle reveal in this passage is not so much the reason for suffering but rather the realities of suffering.

1. GOD ALLOWS SUFFERING TO TAKE PLACE IN OUR LIVES

Notice what the apostle writes about the nature of his suffering. Paul writes concerning a very painful experience that happened in his life. The event occurred sometime after he had the privilege of being caught up to the third heaven. An experience that was so wonderful that he humbly choose not to claim as his own. It was after this experience that God allowed a very painful experience to come into his life.

My grandmother grew up in Nazi Germany. She witnessed the persecution of Jews. She saw her relatives go to concentration camps because they refused to work in ammunition factories. She had to flee from East Prussia to Berlin as a refugee. She saw people disappear from the streets because of the Nazis. She lived through the horror of the fall of Berlin. As I try to share my faith with her, she simply responds with the question, "Why would God allow these things to happen?"

We do not have a satisfactory response to answer that question. We struggle with this issue. Our people struggle it. We try to explain. We look at theologically. We search the scriptures. It is hard for us to understand. But the reality is that God allows suffering to take place in our lives.

II. GOD DOESN'T MAKE SPECIAL DEALS

There is this sense in which many of us operate with a faulty assumption that as long as I am a Christian or as long as 1 am faithfully serving God, I should be exempt from suffering. But notice, here is the apostle, a man that you and I cannot even hold a candle to in terms of spiritual maturity and ministry, yet God allows suffering to be a part of his life just as anyone else. The reality is that God doesn't make special deals with his people.

III. ITS OKAY TO CRY OUT TO GOD

The apostle responded to the suffering in his life like we would. He asked God to take it away. And he just didn't do it once. The text tells us that Paul on three different occasions cried out to God. The implication is that Paul pleaded with God to remove the source of his suffering. I think this is significant because many North American believers are operating under a lie that no matter the intensity of pain we are experiencing, we are to keep a "stiff upper lip." We are told that our response to suffering is supposed to be a "testimony" to others. That is a lie and it is totally unrealistic. We damage ourselves and others by such thinking. The apostle did what any other human being would have done. He cried out to God. It's okay to cry out.