Suffering is Necessary

"Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, becasue we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God as poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us."  Romans 5:3-5

Why do we suffer?  So we can have hope. 

Can't God give us hope without suffering?  If we never suffered, we would not know what hope is.

Take Eve.  God told her not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Then some snake comes along and tells her to, so she does.

It's easy to look at her and say how dumb she is.  God, the maker of heaven and earth, the awe-inspiring being who walks with you through the garden on a regular basis, says not to do something.  A lowly animal tells you that you should.  Who are you going to listen to?

When I thought about that, I instantly decided Eve must have been an idiot.

Then I wondered, did Eve know what "evil" meant?  I imagine the Garden of Eden had nothing evil in it, so how could she have really understood what eating the fruit from that tree would do?  Like telling a child the stove is hot, until they touch the red burners, they probably will not believe you.  Instead of believing God that eating the fruit was wrong, she decided to try it herself.

I wonder if I would have done the same thing.

Then I got to thinking; why would God even plant such a tree in the garden?  I mean, it was his decision to put it there.  And, being the all powerful being that he is, he knew what would happen because of it.

I believe God put it there because he does not want to make our choices for us.  Yes, ask him what to do and he will tell you, but God wanted Adam and Eve to choose for themselves if they were going to follow his perfect will for their lives, or not. This is the way God chose to let them make that decision..

Unfortunately, humanity is now forced to suffer.  But, God promises that through suffering, we will have hope, and hope will never fail us.

"Everything will be okay in the end.  If it's not okay, it's not the end." 

I'm afraid I don't know who said that, but I truely believe it.  So long as things are "not okay" there will be people with the gumption to fight back; there will be hope.  Without suffering, we cannot have hope.  Without hope, there are no expectations for the future, good or bad.  We would all probably kill ourselves.

For that reason, suffering is necessary because hope is vital.