Photo: https://flic.kr/p/a88G2h

Photo: https://flic.kr/p/a88G2h

I’ve been thinking a lot about suffering – something that affects all of us in different ways. Some people suffer from illness, others from injustice, poverty, or any number of other causes, like being worried about the future.

Sometimes, suffering jolts you from a peaceful sleep. And just as the memory of your burden returns, so also does that pit in your stomach. Others wake up from physical pain. Still, others can’t sleep at all.

Suffering steals our minds and attention.

Nearly everyone suffers, at some level or another. Our own personal suffering may be far less than the suffering of others, who have different pains and worries. Yet, it is still suffering.

Our times of suffering allow us to re-connect with God in important ways—to trust God to pull us through.

When we suffer, I think it is helpful to remember the suffering of others. Our own suffering can remind us of the pain that others are going through. These are our co-sufferers. They include people who are suffering from struggling to make ends meet, losing a friend or family member, experiencing unemployment, being a victim of a crime or injustice, enduring illness.

We all suffer. So let us remember that we are suffering together.