What is the point of sufferring in the world (rhetorical)?

Yes I have had alot of pain in my life with Crohns, but I think the disease has made me a much more compassionate and understanding person. It has also made me stronger. How many people do you know who could maintain a fulltime job, and feel like we do everyday? JMHO

I think about this alot too.

All I can come up with are a couple of things.

1.) You need to experience something bad, illness, before you truly appreciate your health. This also spills over into just about everything in life, positive, negative, people chase pleasure, and run from pain.

2.) You will be constantly reminded of the important things in life, less vulnerable to fixate on things like material possessions, and the false comfort they bring.

As far as a point, I don't see a silver lining really. Nobody should be forced to appreciate anything period. Einstein did alot of thinking on this one too, and makes really good points. You may be interested in reading some of his work, if you have not already. Nietzsche and Vigil are my personal favorites. Constancio C. Vigil -- The fallow land, is an excellent book, and talks alot about suffering, and illness.

agree with pb...i've seen parts of the world where our problems are nothing compared to what they deal with daily..It is enough to make the hardest person, very soft and compassionate. Our life is so weird, early in life all the sudden you notice your in a world from absolutely no past knowledge, from nothing really.

I love all you people. I really do. Great replies.

I told my doctor one time that I heard about a soldier who was shot through the gut and he survived by swimming across a sewage pond but of course became horribly infected. I told my doctor that I felt selfish for even considering my condition "pain" after hearing a story like that. But my GI offered some pretty good advice. He said "Never compare your pain to someone elses.". In other words, it's all relative. And I'm sure that soldier would no more like a case of crohn's than I would like an infected gut wound.

Anyway, I do believe pain and sufferring can make you a stronger more caring person but since we've all become that way can we turn it (the pain) off now???!!!! I really do want to help build houses for Habitat for Humanity and get a better job. But I guess right now I have to take the hand I've been dealt and just make the best of it. Hey, it already got me out of jury duty and I get off of workd once every other month to get my Remicade. Yippee!

Hello,

I believe pain and suffering can be benefical because they help us focus on what is really important in our lives.  Suffering and death are the result of our separation from God because of sin.  People just don't naturally seek God when times are good.  When we honestly seek Him, such as in times of suffering, He shows us what life really is about, and his mercy and grace.  “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Rom. 8:28) 

Here are links from a good website.  Email me directly if you want to discuss.

http://www.billygraham.org/LFA_Article.asp?Articleid=117
http://www.billygraham.org/LFA_Article.asp?Articleid=131

My apologies to the Mods if this was too much discussion of religion.

I think being ill for me has been a transformitive experience. I was athletic and had what I considered a meaningful career. But had I not gotten injuried and sick I would not have been able to hug my dad on the day he died. I would not have been here to take care of my Mom when she was sick with cancer. I am certainly more tolerant and compassionate. It has definately been a humbling experience. But now I understand why people feel disenpowered. Like I always wondered why people stay in bad situations. Now I know. It has really made me understand the concept of intradependence. I think perhaps I was a bit shallow of an individual and certainly fiercely independent.

As to the religous aspect there is the idea that one's suffering maybe offered up.
There is a spirtual aspect of God doesn't give us what we cannot take, but sometimes I wish s/he would not trust me so much.
There is also the lessons will be repeated until one learns them. I wonder what is the lesson in endurance? What is the lesson I am to learn from being nice and helpful even when I am in raging pain (rather then allowing myself to be mean)? There are time that things just get to me too much. Perhaps I need to learn patience and smooth....

Hi EMom! I wouldn't stop at verse 18 -- keep reading!! At least through verse 39!

Thanks so much all of you. Your thoughts are so meaningful and touchy. I really appreciate it. I don't have much to say, except that we are still fortunate. There are people in the world, for whom even the thought of living is much more painful and scary than death.

LMills I really like your signature - Learning how to live again.
"He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how."

PSA,
Do you recognize where it is from? It is from Victor Frankl's book "Man's Search for Meaning." When ever I get too down I read that book, because nothing I have gone thru compares to that. He was in the concentration camps during WWII.
Navy

Indeed that is a quote of Frankl's. I highly recommend that book by the way. It's something else to read about their experiences and then reflect back upon your own.

Ivy,

Coming from an Anthroplogical background I just like to think that everything in nature has a point. Makes me comfortable.

My wife says sufferring and pain are just your body's alarm system to tell you something is wrong and it will keep going off until it's fixed. Stinks when you can't find a way to "put out that fire", though. 

If there was any point in extreme suffering, why would a patients who already know they are 100% terminal still have to suffer horribly in their final hours to the very end? I don't believe there is any "point" at all to suffering- it is what it is. However, I agree that we who do suffer can use it, up to a point, to be stronger, and also to divert ourselves from a vicious cycle of self-pity. But the strengthening argument applies to relatively low grade suffering too, such as studying for tough exams or anything. Brutal, searing suffering of the sort many of us go through with IBD seems completely pointless- as obsolete as the old school of medicine that discouraged the use of painkillers for extreme pain. I recall Christopher Reeve being asked if he thought that, because he inspired so many, there was a "purpose" to what he went through, and he replied almost angrily (rightly so in my view) that no, there was no purpose to it at all, it was simply because he fell off a horse in a bad way, and his inspiring people was not and should not be some sort of "purpose" for his suffering. This is not to belittle anyone or any of us for learning anything from our suffering, or from inspiring others (every time I see a story about a horribly wounded young Iraq war vet recover through a ton of surgeries and prosthetic limb it inspires me), but we are all as capable of kindness and wisdom without extreme suffering. Or to summarize more crudely: crap happens.