I’ve been thinking about suffering in the world. There is so much of it and it all seems so needless.
That got me thinking. Does suffering have a purpose – a wider, deeper, or bigger picture meaning?
I think that the answer is probably no. Suffering just is. It is random and horrible and not at all right.
However, how we respond adds purpose in some small way. If seeing suffering makes you act with more compassion; causes you to reach out and help your fellow human beings; or motivates you to make the world a fairer and friendlier place to be. If any of that happens – that gives it purpose. On its own pain has no meaning but if we respond with compassion we bring meaning into the situation. We see the suffering and we say, “this shall not go unmarked” – that, I think, is where meaning might come from.
