The Good in the Bad
C.S. Lewis on the gift of sufferings
When we think of C.S. Lewis’ reflections on suffering, we may turn to The Problem of Pain to contemplate the philosophical problem of evil, or we may turn to A Grief Observed to help us walk through personal loss.
But what about in those mundane moments, those seasons when you aren’t enduring significant heartache, but you feel pain or at least inconvenience? Those days when you just wish things would be going better.
We all have those times. Honestly, that may be where we spend most of our lives. In the in-between moments. The times we feel disconcerted and discontent. In his letters, you can sense Lewis experiencing these moments or responding to others in that situation.
Obviously, Lewis can’t, no more than we can, say exactly why we might be enduring a season of sadness or moments of suffering, but his insights into those times can illuminate what God could be doing and give us an eternal perspective on our earthly circumstances.
In an April 29, 1938 letter to Dom Bede Griffiths, Lewis discusses fighting in World War I and the impending World War II. Those are significant circumstances, but Lewis writes of their effect on him similar to how The Screwtape Letters discussed the way demons should use war.
The issue is not necessarily the danger, but the inconvenience and our comfort being upset. Those happen to each of us because of things large and small.
I have been in considerable trouble over the present danger of war. Twice in one life—and then to find how little I have grown in fortitude despite my conversion. It has done me a lot of good by making me realize how much of my happiness secretly depended on the tacit assumption of at least tolerable conditions for the body: and I see more clearly, I think, the necessity (if one may so put it) which God is under of allowing us to be afflicted—so few of us really rest all on Him if He leaves us any other support.
Lewis contends that, if we have the ability, we will turn elsewhere for comfort, support, happiness, and security. Because of this, God often strips away those false idols.
In a December 30, 1950, letter to Sister Penelope, Lewis writes:
But it would be very dangerous to have no worries—or rather, no occasions of worry. I have been feeling that very much lately: that cheerful insecurity is what Our Lord asks of us.
With this being the unfortunate reality of our hearts, Lewis explained the “difficulty” God faces in a March 5, 1951, letter to “Mrs. Lockley.”1
It is hard on God really. To how few of us He dare send happiness because He knows we will forget Him if He gave us any sort of nice things for the moment.
Why is it so important that God ensures we won’t forget him in favor of whatever good gifts He sends us? Because He knows those will never satisfy. As Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:
That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
Because we can’t find happiness apart from God, He gives us the good (but unwelcome) gift of suffering. Pain will exist in our lives. We can’t change that, but we do have the ability and responsibility to change the way we approach it. It’s a matter of perspective.
In Psalm 73, Asaph says “his steps nearly went astray” because he began to envy prosperity of the wicked. In our difficult moments, it’s hard not to look at the “wicked” and see so many seemingly flourishing.
The psalmist says it all seemed hopeless “until I entered God’s sanctuary.” Divine presence gives us a divine perspective. When we spend time with God, we begin to see things from His point of view. We recognize the futility of those attempting to find eternal significance in fleeting goods.
As we continue in God’s presence, we also gain the vantage point that Lewis has (or wanted to have) toward our own suffering. In Romans 5, Paul says that the one who has been justified by faith and has peace with God through Jesus can “boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.” That hope is dependent on Christ.
Our difficulties in this life—be they small, momentary inconveniences or significant, lasting suffering—can be understood as blessings, as gifts from God, because they give us more of what’s best. They lead us deeper into Him.
Sources:
Lamp Post
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According to Walter Hooper, this was a pseudonym Warren Lewis gave to this yet to be identified correspondent.
This is why Paul encourages toward contentment rather than happiness. We can be content in both good and bad circumstances if we trust God's will in our lives.