Richard Niebuhr Suffering

Suffering is an obstacle that everyone has to confront at all times in their life. Most of time, suffering is painful. However, if people consider it as a chance for learning, they can gain a broader appreciation of life and success. They will grow one step further in the process of overcoming and stepping out from the disincentive. However, confronting suffering is not necessarily drawing the beneficial consequences: sometimes, suffering seems ultimately pointless. It may ruin people devastatingly and even lead them to the dehumanization by drawing out their negative hidden traits. A Long Way Gone--a book of Ishmael’s dreadful memories of being a boy soldier and the atrocious truth of the war--and Othello--a tragedy of jealousy, vengeance, and love--indicate those two

David Brooks argues, in his essay “What Suffering Does”, that pain often gives people a new outlook and possibly even a new path in life. He explains that suffering can help people see their lives from an outsider’s perspective, discover new depths of their character, and often find new paths: “The grief of having lost a loved one smashes through what they thought was the bottom floor of their personality, revealing an area below,” (Brooks 286). Brooks in this passage describes how suffering can enhance a person’s character. As cliché as it sounds, hardships can, in fact,

Suffering joins people closer to Christ and his sufferings, especially in persecution (1 Pet. 4:1-2, 12-16, 19; 5:8-10; Luke 9:23; Phil. 3:10).

Suffering. All of us have encountered suffering and many of us wish we never would have to again; however, what many people do not see is that since we have suffering, we have happiness. One can not exist without the other. Without this feeling of suffering or unhappiness, we would not be able to understand happiness or even know it as a pleasant feeling, since we would never have experienced a life of unhappiness. Journalist David Brooks in “What Suffering Does” and Buddhist Monk Matthieu Ricard in “The Alchemy of Suffering” gave their own input upon the relationship between suffering and happiness. They seem to mention how every person endures suffering, but what is important is not the suffering itself, but the way a person changes or reacts to the suffering. While one may hate suffering, we have to understand that one can not be happy without having suffered. The characterization of emotional suffering as “rewarding” to people fails to account for individuals who have undergone the death of their spouse and have come out of it a changed person. In fact, in the 21st century, pervasive media advertising through television advances western cultural expectations of “perfection”, that in part advance suffering.

I believe suffering results from our separation from God. He is holy, all-powerful, all-loving, all that is good. Each day I find myself doing things that move me away from Him. Every time I sin, the world becomes a little bit worse. I can do no good thing apart from God. The more I separate myself from Him, the more likely I am to cause someone else harm or pain.

Evidently, suffering can give a person strength to go on in their daily lives. Being

Suffering is a characteristic that both Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano had in common throughout their lifetimes. Suffering is a powerful and cruel feeling that we have all received but some take their suffering and use it to become a better person or someone who is stronger and wiser. Mary and Olaudah both went through loss, torment, and then had religion/faith to help them during their lives,they reached a point in their lives where to could preserve throughout their lives and become stronger human beings.

Bryant McGill once said “Suffering is one of life's greatest teachers” and this quote is very true. Suffering from a tragedy, many seem like the worst thing to ever happen, but if you push through and persevere, you will learn so much about yourself and the others around you. Through Suffering we learn from our past to grow our communities in the spirit of a hopeful future by preserving and bravery.

Our experiences of suffering may also help us in our moral conduct as an experience of suffering serves to make us sympathetic to the trials of others. We learn to a) help the afflicted (through consolation and relief) and to B) not inflict harm on others, having experienced suffering ourselves. Furthermore, many spiritual seekers in the past have felt that suffering and spiritual progress are inexorably linked, pointing to St Teresa of Avila and St Francis of AssisiI as examples . I believe that if we can learn from our

“Suffering” is a word which carries negative connotations, used to incite pity, empathy or fear. Why would it not? Is suffering not simply agony, defined justly by the Oxford Dictionary as “the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship” (“Suffering)? Yet, we accept suffering as part of life, a fundamental aspect that defines living. Nietzsche tells us that the very act of living is suffering itself, but to survive is to find value in that suffering. Yet, what sort of value can be attached to an idea so negative? Pico Iyer’s editorial in the New York Times explores the value of suffering, likening suffering to passion and “[p]assion with the plight of other’s makes for ‘compassion’” (________________).I began to think upon the cohesive

Nietzsche actually believed that one of the reason for which society achieved great progress was the fact that particular individuals accepted pain as a significant step on the road to success. Pain actually encouraged such persons to go further with their plans in hope that the ultimate goal will compensate for the suffering they experienced throughout their lives. Most successful people have experienced great suffering at particular points in their lives, but this did not stop them from committing themselves even harder to their cause.

The suffering of man is a very complicated matter that is most likely impossible to understand completely. It is a subject that people have grappled with since the dawn of recorded history. In fact, suffering is evident in every form of art man has created. Suffering is in our paintings, our poetry, our music, our plays, and in anything else that is conceivable. But still, we as a whole still struggle with the idea of suffering. It is my opinion that some individuals may grasp the notion of suffering more than others, but that no one person will ever fully understand suffering in every form. A person may only understand his or her own personal suffering, not suffering as a whole. It is the next step to then say

Every human has suffered within their lifetime. The suffering experienced by humans has a meaning and it is not the same meaning for everyone. Moreover, there is a danger in thinking that suffering has no meaning. Frankl and Weil explain the dangers of not believing there is a meaning in suffering. For Frankl, suffering was the only way to find true meaning of one’s life. Other the contrary, Weil said that suffering was a way to become close with God. But believed suffering was a vital part of being a human and would could not go through life without it. Weil and Frankl believed that suffering has a further purpose and that purpose was to give life an ultimate meaning.

Pamela Cooper-White makes an interesting claim of how people suffer and how they should recover from their pain. White claims that suffering is the “meaning that we make or attempt to make our pain.” Then for someone to fully heal, “we must make meaning in relation to our pain.” It is not an easy task to heal from pain and suffering and it takes time to heal your wounds. Sadly, some people do not recover from their wounds, and digress from their lives and society because they cannot deal with the pain. Some people do not have a form of support or no one in their lives to help them cope with their pain. Further, White claims, “we need a witness in our lives to” become aware of our experience. Without this relationship, we will never fix ourselves

We see this in The Book of Job too. To Job, suffering happens as a result of God testing us. A Satan questioned the followings of God's people. This led to God testing his best subject, Job. God made Job suffer in the worst way any human being could. This would be physical suffering and mental suffering. When God took away Job's family and possessions, he suffered mentally. All of his possessions and loved ones were gone without a reason known to him. It was physical suffering when he was struck with sores about his body. This also gives reason to suffering that happens when you can't explain it. Even a person who thinks that they are perfect can suffer. You could be just like Job, almost a perfect worshiper. That would be even more the reason for you to be tested. The Book of Job is one of the teachings of the Bible, a spiritual and religious guide. A person reading this would believe that suffering is a test. It is a test of your faith, your faith in God. Therefore, if we were suffering, as long as we keep faith, the suffering will end. As long as we keep faith the suffering will stop, and better things will happen and develop.