Why Your Suffering Matters: What 1 Peter Teaches About Pain, Growth and Love

A couple of weeks ago, Leeanne and I spent some time in Broken Hill. It was the first time I had been back in 35 years.

Broken Hill is where my adult life began. It is where I started work in radio, where I was baptised, and where many of the hopes and dreams of my younger self first took shape. Walking around the city again, visiting old workplaces and familiar streets, I found myself reflecting on the eighteen-year-old who had arrived there with his whole life ahead of him.

What struck me most was not how much the city had changed. It was how much I had changed.

As I thought about that young man, I realised something I wish I had understood at the time. When you’re young, you tend to trust yourself too much in some ways and not enough in others. You trust yourself too much about what life is going to be like, how much control you really have, and how easily things will work out. At the same time, you often don’t trust yourself enough to take the risks you should take, to step into opportunities, or to believe God can use you.

Most of all, though, I realised how quickly the years have passed.

Life Is Short

Peter reminds his readers of this reality when he writes, “The end of all things is near” (1 Peter 4:7). Peter is not simply talking about the return of Christ. He is reminding us that our lives are brief. Whether we are eighteen or eighty, our days are limited. The question is not whether life will end. The question is how we will live while we are here.

The writer of Ecclesiastes takes the idea even further. “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:2). That sounds like a strange thing to say until you realise what grief does to us. Funerals and times of loss strip away the distractions. They force us to ask the questions we spend most of our lives avoiding. What kind of person am I becoming? What actually matters? What will remain when my life is over?

Suffering Is Not Strange

One of the great stories our culture tells is that suffering means something has gone wrong. We are taught to pursue comfort, convenience and happiness. We spend enormous amounts of time and money trying to avoid pain. If we are suffering, we assume something is broken and needs to be fixed immediately.

Yet Peter says something very different. “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12).

In other words, suffering is not strange.

It is part of life.

We live in a broken world. Relationships break down. Bodies wear out. People disappoint us. Dreams don’t always unfold the way we hoped. People we love die. The Christian faith never promises a life free from hardship. In fact, Peter assumes suffering will be part of following Jesus.

That may sound discouraging, but I think it is actually freeing. When we expect life to be comfortable, every hardship feels like a crisis. But when we understand suffering is part of life, we can stop asking, “Why is this happening to me?” and begin asking, “What is God doing in me through this?”

Suffering Reveals Who We Are Becoming

Peter suggests that suffering can become a refining fire. It reveals who we are becoming. It exposes our character. It shows us what is really going on beneath the surface.

More importantly, it forces a choice.

Will suffering drive me further into myself, or will it drive me toward God and toward other people?

I think that is one of the great spiritual battles of life.

The greatest danger facing Christians in Tasmania is probably not persecution. It is self-absorption. It is becoming so comfortable, so focused on our own needs, our own concerns and our own ambitions, that we no longer have room for Jesus or for other people. Peter understands this danger. That is why, immediately after reminding his readers that life is short, he says, “Above all, love each other deeply” (1 Peter 4:8).

The Choice We Face

Life is short, so love people.

Life is difficult, so love people.

You are suffering, so love people.

That is Peter’s message.

Later he writes, “Those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good” (1 Peter 4:19). Continue to do good. Continue to love. Continue to serve. Continue to trust.

Recently I spent time with Joy Tilly. Joy faces challenges that most of us would struggle to carry. Her hands do not work the way she wants them to work. Her body does not do what she wishes it would do. Yet when you spend time with Joy, what stands out is not her suffering. It is her joy. Despite her difficulties, she still notices other people. She still encourages them. She still prays for them. She still loves them.

Joy reminds me that suffering does not automatically make us bitter or beautiful. But it often reveals which direction we are heading.

You Are Not Here to Take Up Space

The older I get, the more convinced I become that life is far more about who you love than what you achieve. Our culture measures success by wealth, status, influence and comfort. Jesus measures life differently. He asks whether we loved God. He asks whether we loved people. He asks whether we were willing to give ourselves away for the sake of others.

Life is short. Suffering is real. But suffering does not have the final word. God can use even the hardest parts of our lives to shape us into people who look more like Jesus.

The question is whether we will let Him.

Peter’s challenge is remarkably simple. As long as you are alive, continue to do good. Continue to love people. Continue to trust God.

You are not here to take up space.

Life is short.

So make it count.