Suffering

Well, there probably isn't anything more depressing than seeing a blog post entitled suffering. In my mind, it wasn't supposed to sound depressing, so don't worry. This morning in church one of the passages that was read talked about the sufferings of generations to come because of the sins of the previous generation. I of course began to think negatively. Why is God portrayed as a forgiving and merciful God, yet He still punishes people for sins that their ancestors committed? As I sat there and thought about the different ways that I have seen suffering and personally suffered, I noticed that I was becoming angry with God. How was any of this fair? After a while, I realized that if I were going to use the same thinking as I was this morning, I could say that it isn't fair that I am living in a sinful world because Adam and Eve decided to go against God. As I began to think about this, I started to laugh. Not because this scenario is humorous, but because I actually thought that if I were in Eve's situation that I would do something different. How can I blame the sins of others for my suffering, when I know that my own sin has caused other people to suffer? Rather than seeing my suffering as someone elses fault and blaming God, I can show mercy and grace towards other people and remember how my sin has caused suffering in other people's lives.