So suffering unmasks our inadequacy. The most beautiful people I know, the healthiest from a spiritual standpoint, have been undone by suffering. They are naked. Their weaknesses have been exposed (to them personally) and hence, their self-awareness has grown. Out of this nakedness comes opportunity- opportunity to invite God in. When we invite Him in, He meets us in our pain and in the course of time, He heals us, but not fully. Only in heaven will we experience complete and permanent healing. For now, He gives us healing sufficient to enable us to continue to be naked and unashamed.
When this happens, we rediscover joy, a joy that isn't dependent on favorable circumstances.
All of this requires perseverance. The worst thing about severe pain, from my perspective, is that when you are experiencing it, it feels permanent. When those who want to become a Navy Seal are in training, if they determine they can't go on, they can ring a bell. If they ring the bell, they are saying, "I've had enough' and they can leave the training. Some outstanding people ring that bell. The trials of training are just too much. Well, in the kind of suffering I'm talking about, there is no bell to ring. There is nothing you can do to end the pain. You can numb it with chemicals and counterfeit comforts, but you can't make it stop. There's no way out of it and there's no way around it. You must go through it. That's why the Bible has a lot of verses about perseverance.
If we submit and keep submitting (submitting to God is not a one-time thing) our lives to God, we ask Him to help us to be followers who, through thick and thin, are all in. We ask Him to shape us into Christ-likeness. We ask Him to do what it takes, no holds barred, to form us and transform us.
Suffering is indeed frightening. There is so much uncertainty and unpredictability to it. The worst kind feels traumatic. You question your sanity. Even when you are surrounded by really good people, you feel alone. Alone and afraid. Like a little child who lost his mom. It is in this kind of pain where we can discover God in new ways. He only calms the fears of the frightened. He only strengthens the weak. He only heals the broken.
Will you and I (I can't speak with certainty about myself) let God into our suffering? Will we say, "Use every bit of this to create a masterpiece and in the process, give me what I need to receive Your sustaining grace in the midst of it."