Meaning in Suffering

What is the meaning of suffering in our daily lives? What is my life about? Living in a city, I ask myself this question many times.As I drive through traffic that seems to never subside, as I watch others on the road, the taxis, the buses, the trains, full of people, each one on their way going somewhere; each one living a life. And for each one life means something.

As I walk around in the malls and observe people in restaurants and coffee shops, I always wonder what their lives are about. I wonder how they experience the meaning of their lives. I often wonder about my own life and its meaning, and I love reading about how saints, mystics and great spiritual writers have struggled with and expressed their quest for the meaning of life.

What follows is an extract from Adolfo Quezada’s book Loving Yourself for God’s Sake (1997) in which he speaks about giving meaning to your life.

Inherent in your being is the nature of intention. Unless you move with purpose and live with direction, you flounder, become disorientated and isolated, and begin to die. When you pursue happiness, peace or pleasure for their own sake, they may elude you time after time. Eventually you learn that happiness, peace and pleasure are consequences of meaningful living and not the other way round.

The path towards meaning is purpose. Even this is a paradox; purpose cannot be pursued for its own sake. Only when something or someone becomes paramount in your life does purpose begin to form and exert its power in your daily life. This cannot be obsession because obsession kills. Rather, it is love, a love that goes beyond self in enthusiasm for what you love, be it a person, a cause, your creativity, or your God.

Your purpose and its fulfilment give meaning to your life. Meaning has to do with being lost in something bigger than yourself. It has to do with discovering the boundaries of your identity, but the emphasis is on transcending those boundaries and ascending toward a fuller measure of your being.

You do not seek to discover a universal meaning in life but one that is unique to your individuality – your state in life, your personality traits, your circumstances, and the faith you have in possibilities.

What I understand by Quezada’s words is that there is not a general meaning to life that applies to all. Our lives are unique. So I have to ask myself – as a woman living in the city, with my marital status, my interests, my family situation, my personality – what gives meaning to my life? And so each and every single person will answer these questions according to their unique circumstances.

Quezada continues by saying: – Your meaning is evident in those things you allow yourself to receive from life, what you learn, how you grow. You manifest your meaning through your contributions to life in your work, your creativity, and your love. Mostly, you reveal your meaning by your response to life’s surprises including the changes, the losses and the suffering.

What he says is that our losses and suffering help us find meaning in our lives. And this we can attest to. You might have experienced this when you have gone through suffering – death in the family, a divorce, a failed relationship, loss of a job or business, damage to our reputation and truly reflected on life again and found the meaning of it.

Once we have found the meaning of these events, we are changed and life becomes beautiful renewed.

Suffering is not to be avoided. As Christians we should unite our own pain and that of a groaning creation with the passion of Christ.

And as we watch people walking through the streets of life, with their pain and their suffering, we can know that their suffering and our suffering now take on a new meaning: it renews and changes the face of the earth.