Quotes About Suffering

God uses no magic wand to simply wave bad things into nonexistence. The sins that he remits, he remits by making them his own and suffering them. The pain and heartaches that he relieves, he relieves by suffering them himself. These things can be shared and absorbed, but they cannot be simply wished or waved away. They must be suffered.

Jerry says Lewis shouldn't hold it against Harley. He didn't know what he was doing. When the whole world hurts, you bite it, don't you?

It's soft at the end. Not just the pain, but the world.

The root cause of suffering is explained as the second of the Buddha's truths. Quite simply, it is our own desire for sensual pleasure and our attachment to the objects of the senses that cause us so much pain. Being deluded concerning the reality of this world, we react to the phantoms of our perceptions with lust or anger. We are filled with desire or hatred, pride or jealousy, and all such conceits cause us to act in a way that gives pain to ourselves and others.

Yet literal or figurative, only the human state, the mode that is balanced without too much suffering and too much comfort, is said to be conducive to future spiritual growth. An excess of suffering prevents people from ever giving thought to anything else since their minds are overwhelmed by pain, while an excess of comfort and happiness dulls the mind and gives no motivation for change.

You know that easy money, stupid people, and hard times have a way of creating misery.

You know that easy money, stupid people, and hard times have a way of creating misery. Your

The God-man who is humiliated is the stumbling block to the pious human being and to the human being, period.

This poem, "Stations on the Road to Freedom," echoes the Christ-centered or christotelic emphasis we have come to see in so much of Bonhoeffer's writings. In Christ's humiliation we see discipline, action, suffering, and ultimately death. In Christ's crucifixion we see all four as well. And in Christ's resurrection we see his triumph over death and over suffering. In the risen and living Christ we see the triumph of freedom.

We are the offspring of history, and must establish our own paths in this most diverse and interesting of conceivable universes—one indifferent to our suffering, and therefore offering us maximum freedom to thrive, or to fail, in our own chosen way.

When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, "Why god? Why me?" and the thundering voice of God answered, There's just something about you that pisses me off.

Hearts can break. Yes, hearts can break. Sometimes I think it would be better if we died when they did, but we don't.

Well, I was thinking this very thing. I was thinking: I am going to die today, but Jesu also died, so he knows how it is with me. And I was thinking, would he know me when I came to him? Yes! Sitting in his hall, he will see me sail into the bay, and he will run down to meet me on the shore; he will wade into the sea and pull my boat onto the sand and welcome me as his wayfaring brother. Why will he do this? Because he too has suffered, and he knows...HE KNOWS...Is that not good news?

D]on't cling to your self-righteous suffering, let it go. . . . Nothing is too good to be true, let yourself be forgiven. To the degree you insist that you must suffer, you insist on the suffering of others as well. (90)

When your fear touches someone's pain, it becomes pity, when your love touches someone's pain, it become compassion.

There is nothing noble about suffering except the love and forgiveness with which we meet it. Many believe that if they are suffering they are closer to God, but I have met very few who could keep their heart open to their suffering enough for that to be true. (124)

The confirmation of history is that we are not called despite our wounding and betrayal; we are wounded and betrayed because we are called. And God yearns to make your pain redemptive in your life.

This you have to understand. There's only one way to hurt a man who's lost everything. Give him back something broken.

Futility is the defining characteristic of life.

But exploration of Bonhoeffer's career under Hitler also revealed troubling data, particularly in his essay "The Church and the Jewish Question" (1933). In addition to its bold assertion that Christians have an unconditional obligation to aid victims of the state, the essay gave credence to the ancient view that "the 'chosen people,' which hung the Redeemer of the world on the cross, must endure the curse of its action in long-drawn-out suffering.

The Lord came, not to remove our suffering, but to show us the way through it to the glory beyond.

All life is rooted in pain. There can be no escape, but love makes the hurt bearable.

And, Lord, does it have to be so blasted hot?

Oh, but men are such thoughtless creatures and it is women who suffer for their foolishness.