The Meaning Of Suffering
Mysterious Ways|Apr/May 2017

The Meaning Of Suffering

Diana Aydin
The Meaning Of Suffering

Why, God, why? Why me?

That’s a mystery I’ve been wrestling with since I was 14 years old. I had just undergone brain surgery to remove a benign cyst sitting on my optic nerve. I woke up sick every morning for nearly a year from taking the medications I would now be on for life. My hair wouldn’t grow back the same. I felt like an outsider at school. I turned to my parents and to my twin sisters for support. Still, it took a long time for me to recover. Then, at age 24, when life finally seemed to be getting back to normal, another blow. Multiple sclerosis. Just like that, my life became a series of MRIs, daily injections that left painful welts and even more unanswered questions. Would I lose my ability to walk one day? Would I be able to endure a life of pain and the loneliness that comes with it? Pain is like a prison. It isolates us, cutting us off from others. After all, only we can feel our pain.

I’ve read many things on the mystery of suffering. I’ve considered all the explanations. How we live in a fallen world where suffering is the price of sin. How some suffer more because they’re being tested, as if it’s some sort of gift. None of those reasons answered that question in my mind. If God exists and God is good, why do we suffer? Where is God when we do?

I decided to seek answers by talking with those who confront these questions every day: religious leaders and writers who possess intimate knowledge of suffering—mental and spiritual suffering as well as physical.

Bu hikaye Mysterious Ways dergisinin Apr/May 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

Bu hikaye Mysterious Ways dergisinin Apr/May 2017 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MYSTERIOUS WAYS DERGISINDEN DAHA FAZLA HIKAYETümünü görüntüle
Ivy Dishes
Mysterious Ways

Ivy Dishes

“My mom found a house for us to look at,” said my fiancé, Jon. “It’s in Richfield, not far from where I grew up.”

time-read
4 dak  |
February/March 2021
The Duet
Mysterious Ways

The Duet

“Can you perform a hymn for us next week?” my pastor asked me after Sunday service.

time-read
2 dak  |
February/March 2021
The Girl in the Dream
Mysterious Ways

The Girl in the Dream

Was this a church? The high, vaulted ceilings made it seem like one—almost but not exactly.

time-read
5 dak  |
February/March 2021
News From Around Our Wonderful World
Mysterious Ways

News From Around Our Wonderful World

Liverpool, England Joanne Carr is hailing her son, Dougie McInerney, as her guardian angel.

time-read
2 dak  |
February/March 2021
A Light in the Blizzard
Mysterious Ways

A Light in the Blizzard

I stepped on the gas and shifted into drive, then reverse, then back into drive again.

time-read
4 dak  |
February/March 2021
Straight From the Fish's Mouth
Mysterious Ways

Straight From the Fish's Mouth

Florence, Italy. I’d been there before on one of those scruffy five-dollar-a-day youth-hostel jaunts through Europe, but now, just graduated from college, I was wondering what to do with my life.

time-read
5 dak  |
February/March 2021
Divine Callings
Mysterious Ways

Divine Callings

Have you ever felt called to a purpose?

time-read
8 dak  |
February/March 2021
Dad's Voice
Mysterious Ways

Dad's Voice

As I reached to turn off the lamp on my bedside table, my eyes fell on the card my brother Isaac had given each of us siblings on what would have been Dad’s sixty-eighth birthday.

time-read
3 dak  |
February/March 2021
Ben's Answer
Mysterious Ways

Ben's Answer

It was midafternoon, and I was already curled up on the couch in the living room with no plans to move.

time-read
3 dak  |
February/March 2021
A Doll's Hat
Mysterious Ways

A Doll's Hat

My fears around the surgery built all day.... God, please let me be as strong as my young patients are.

time-read
3 dak  |
February/March 2021