Working as a staff chaplain in a large medical center, I get plenty of opportunities to talk to people who are going through hard times. Indeed, some of them are experiencing intense suffering. Inevitably some of these people will ask me why it is that God lets them experience so much pain. As I listen to their concerns I often hear a similar theme being expressed.

Suffering patients typically see their pain and discomfort as stemming from God. They view their misery as either an assignment of punishment originating directly from the Lord, or an absence of protection where God doesn't care that they are hurting. While the Bible indicates that we can experience hardships as a result of God's displeasure with us, there are at least four other explanations for why we experience pain and distress.

For this article, I will list these five reasons, provide an illustration from Scripture to highlight each cause, and then propose an example of how a specific disease like cancer could come about in each situation. At the end of this article, I will explain why it's important for hurting people to consider all of the potential reasons they may be experiencing suffering rather than just focusing on one or two options. I will conclude by summarizing three ways God provides purpose in our pain.

(The reasons listed below are not exhaustive and are not provided in any particular order. )

1. God is Directly Punishing Us

This is the conclusion that many people settle on. Most are convinced that God gave his approval for their illness or injury; yet in my experience, the vast majority of this group also believes that their suffering is unjustified. It's true the Bible teaches that God often punishes those who sin (Hosea 4:9). Indeed, we all die because we all sin against God (Romans 6:23). A sobering example of God punishing sinners is when Ananias and Sapphira are struck down for deceptively claiming they had given the church all the money they had received from selling a piece of property (Acts 5:1-10). Just as God punished King Uzziah with leprosy (2 Chronicles 26:16-21), it's possible that God may use cancer as a punishment for our sinfulness. Nevertheless, there are many other reasons why a person may experience cancer.

3. Our Hardships Stem from the Foolish Mistakes and Selfish Motives of Other People

There is no doubt that other human beings can make choices that negatively impact us. Because King David's adultery with Bathsheba resulted in an unexplained pregnancy, David decided to kill her husband, Uriah, and take Bathsheba as his wife. But notice the report of Uriah's death in 2 Samuel 11:22-24. Uriah wasn't the only soldier that lost his life in the deathtrap that David ordered his army commander to carry out. Other men, who had nothing to do with the scandal, lost their lives as a result. They were the collateral damage of David's sin. We too can suffer because of the incompetence or bad behavior of those around us. How many workers across the years have gotten cancer because their employers failed to provide them with the proper protection equipment to safely perform their jobs?

5. Pain and Disease Entered the World Due to the Fall of Humankind

Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because they rebelled against God and ate of the forbidden fruit, all of humanity became selfish and was doomed to die (Romans 5:12-21). What's more, the fall of humanity resulted in the natural world becoming broken as well. Thorns began to spring up across the land and childbirth became painful for women (Genesis 3:16-19). Romans 8:20-23 reveals that our planet is cursed and in a state of decay because sin entered into the world. What this means is that many people are experiencing cancer today as a result of the fall of Adam and Eve. For example, they may have inherited a mutated gene that initiates an uncontrolled division of abnormal cells. Or they may have developed a skin cancer because the ozone layer is not able to block solar radiation the way it was originally designed to do.

1. Our Suffering is Intended to Help Others

Part of the benefit derived from Job's ordeal is that those who are aware of his story are now better educated about the complexities of suffering. For example, because of that book, we learn that physical ailments can be due to attacks by spiritual forces. Moreover, we discover that people can experience hardships even when they have done nothing to deserve them. Paradoxically, we benefit because Job suffered. Paul writes in Philippians 1:12-14 that his own personal imprisonment helped spread the Gospel and enabled others to grow in their faith. Returning to our real-world example above, God may allow us to undergo painful surgeries and debilitating chemotherapy treatments in order to bring others to Christ or to strengthen the faith of fellow believers.

3. God Moves Us Through Suffering in Order to Get Us to Blessing

Sometimes the only way to get to the wildflower meadow is to travel through the mosquito-infested swamp. Daniel was a young man who was taken captive and marched away from his home by the cruel Babylonians (Daniel 1:1-3). Surely this was a difficult and frightening experience for Daniel. Yet we read that God had a better plan for Daniel's life. The Lord intended to make Daniel a high ranking leader in the Babylonian empire, but to do that required Daniel to travel through a dark time. This concept reminds me of a patient I once met who had been in a somewhat serious car crash. While this man was in the hospital recovering from the collision, the doctors ordered various test to be run on him. One of the tests revealed a cancer that had not been previously diagnosed. The doctors indicated that because they were able to catch the cancer so early, it could be treated fairly easily, and they were right. The man ultimately regained his health. What's insightful in this situation is that the patient was originally distressed that the Lord had allowed him to be in an accident. Yet later, this same patient told me that he was fortunate to be in the accident, because God used it to reveal his cancer. So we see that this individual journeyed through suffering in order for God to make him completely whole.