Victor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher and author who was also a survivor of German concentrations camps in World War II.  In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he wrote that the difference he saw in the men who survived the camps and those who didn’t, was the central issue of “meaning.”  Those who found no meaning in their suffering, succumbed and died.  Those who could find some meaning for what they were experiencing, some redeeming purpose for their suffering, survived.  I would argue that our greatest need today is still to find meaning for our life and our experiences.  Having suicide rates at all-time highs in a nation still prosperous and full of opportunities tells me that people, young and old, cannot find a reason to go on when life gets hard and disappointment dims their dreams.

Before coming to Christ, I struggled with depression as a college student.  Even in my 20’s, I already sensed a futility to life.  The idea of simply working for 75 years to bring home a pay check and then to die, was a very unfulfilling view of my future.  I had no sense of who I was or why I was or of any purpose beyond the moment. The thought of the rest of my life feeling that way was debilitating.  Discovering Jesus changed that. Jesus and the destiny assigned to me in heaven, gave my life purpose – not just for the years I have in this body, but for eternity.  When I began to discover who God had made me to be, I found fulfillment in the path laid out for me.

Satan loves to blind us from our purpose and the meaning that every experience has for our destiny.  One of his primary strategies is to make us feel disqualified for anything beyond disappointments and failures.  He takes those setbacks and whispers to us that we are unworthy of anything more and that our lives will simply be a series of failed attempts to find love and happiness.  

Paul says something interesting in his second letter to the church at Corinth. He wrote, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. (2 Cor. 1:3-4). Let me highlight a couple of truths from this passage and then tie it into the concept of “meaning.”

First of all, we will all experience troubles – failure, loss, hardship, betrayal, and pain.  It is the fabric of this world. If we believe that God has promised us a trouble-free existence then we haven’t read the Bible carefully and we will experience a great deal of disappointment. The fact that we suffer is not abandonment by God any more than pain and injuries in a football game are the coach’s fault.  It is simply part of the game and the price you pay to participate. Expect it.  Prepare for it.  Deal with it. Like all top athletes, you will have to play injured at times,  but God does promise that we win in the end.

Secondly, it is in the midst of trouble that we most clearly experience the hand and comfort of God if we will receive it. Remember, God did not keep Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego out of the fire.  He simply joined them in the fire.  It is when we struggle that we truly discover God in our lives if we are open to the discovery.

The other great truth in the passage is that whatever we receive from God in our suffering and even failures, we are to use to help others who are coming down that same dark road behind us.  

After years of ministry to hurting people, I have clearly seen that true healing only comes when we use our own pain from the past to comfort and direct others.  That ministry to the broken and the hurting gives our own suffering meaning.  It redeems our pain so that it has value. If we can find no purpose for what we have gone through or are going through, we inevitably blame God for being unfair or of betraying us.  We will then wither like those in the Nazi concentration camps who could find no meaning in what they were going through.  However, when we see God’s purpose for our suffering or have faith that he will use it for something significant, we can become partners with him in overcoming evil.  

Let me quickly say that God is not the cause of our suffering, but he will use it so that what we have gone through has redeeming value. The devil tries to convince us that our losses, abuse, and failures have disqualified us from our destiny –  that because we have failures in our past, God will not or cannot use us. He tries to convince us that our losses and failures determine our identity for all time. That is not true.  Those things that brought pain and even shame into our lives actually equip us to minister to others.   Those are actually the very things that make us qualified. 

I have served in full time ministry long enough that I have known several church leaders whose lives seemed to have been charmed.  They grew up in great Christian homes, had amazing careers, had “perfect” kids, and simply had no history of abuse, divorce, failure , or besetting sin that I knew of.  They were great people, but in every church the people I worked with – the abused, the divorced, the single mothers, those struggling with addictions -would never have gone to those men and women for counsel.  They not only feared being judged, but more than that, believed that those “charmed” individuals would simply have no empathy or understanding of their situation.  In order to be a perfect High Priest for us, Jesus had to be tempted in every way as we are. We need to be able to tell others that we have been down the same muddy roads as they are travelling now.  Our own hurts, betrayals, losses, and sin give us the wisdom and the credibility hurting people need when God has led us out of our own pain and shame.

I love Elevation’s recent song, Graves Into Gardens, as it speaks of how God redeems even death and turns it into something full of life.  He can do that in our own lives as we find our own meaning in Him and the destiny that Jesus has purchased for us.  The key is not to let out past define us, but to let the lessons we have learned in Christ, prepare us to pass God’s comfort on to others who also have a destiny in him.