Many people around the world are speculating about the idea that suffering makes you who you are. American thinker Richard Niebuhr states, “It is in the response to suffering that many and perhaps all men individually, and in their groups, define themselves, take on character, develop their ethos.” I agree with his thoughts on this subject completely. I support his thoughts because I have witnessed a change in personality and have personally had my mindset altered in result to suffering. Not only do I agree for these reasons, but I also agree because no matter the situation, everyone is affected by suffering. One reason why I support Niebuhr’s idea is because I have witnessed one of my family members go through a change in personality because of suffering. In 2009, my older brother started to stay in his room most of the day and lock himself away from the outside world. This was a result of going through a year of watching my grandfather die of Alzheimer’s disease. Without this year of suffering, my brother wouldn’t have gone through this change in personality; he would have remained the energized and talkative brother that he always used to be. This proves to show that the slightest bit of suffering can change your personality entirely. Not only can it affect your personality, …show more content…
A few years back I went through a period of suffering because I had a knee problem that would stay with me forever. I suffered a lot because I thought it would affect my soccer career. Throughout this period of suffering, my mindset started to change from worrying about my knee, to trying to fix it. I started to work a lot harder at practice to make my knee stronger which made my mindset carry over into school work and grades. It I hadn’t gone through that period of suffering, I would have never had my mindset transformed. So Niebuhr’s idea has proven right yet
paper. It will be argued that the extent to which those are suffering does, in fact, vary, and that others have continued on with their lives with little to no effect at all.
And indeed, suffering, lack of safety, is unavoidable, and also necessary for some things. "When I was downstairs before, on my way here, listening to that woman sing, it struck me all of a sudden how much suffering she must have had to go through. It's repulsive to think you have to suffer that much" (65). But we do. Everyone does. In fact, "There's no way not to suffer" (65). We are never safe from it.
After reviewing the work of David Hume, the idea of a God existing in a world filled with so much pain and suffering is not so hard to understand. Humes’ work highlights some interesting points which allowed me to reach the conclusion that suffering is perhaps a part of God’s divine plan for humans. Our morals and values allow us to operate and live our daily lives in conjunction with a set of standards that help us to better understand our world around us and essentially allows us to better prepare for the potential life after life. For each and every day we get closer to our impending deaths and possibly closer to meeting the grand orchestrator of our universe.
Despite its prevalence, suffering is always seen an intrusion, a personal attack on its victims. However, without its presence, there would never be anyway to differentiate between happiness and sadness, nor good and evil. It is encoded into the daily lives people lead, and cannot be avoided, much like the prophecies described in Antigone. Upon finding out that he’d murdered his father and married his mother,
Sometimes our appreciation and trust in God becomes conditioned on how well things are going for us. When a Christian suffers, they assume that there must be sin in their life. But suffering is not always a result of sin as we see with Job. In most cases, those who are sinners suffer a little while those who are good suffer much. Many people see this as a stumbling block for Christian and ask why God allows suffering. Instead of us asking ourselves “why me” we might be better off asking “why not me.” God often uses suffering to produce righteous character in believers. Sometimes He wants those who suffer to be more dependent upon Him. It may be that He is trying to get our attention. We might even be sinning; however, we cannot always equate suffering with sin in those who love the Lord as we see with Job’s
This is the path that glorifies God and shows His character. It is not us that are glorified through our actions, but rather Him through us. He uses us as His vessels to do His work, so by remaining disciplined in what God has commanded His work is done and His Kingdom is grown. This instance would say the God allows suffering to help develop His followers. It is through these experiences that we look and see Gods character, as well as shows others this character. The suffering that we face is to help glorify God, and become righteous in His sight for it is said in the Old Testament “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness”
When enduring great suffering, people are not capable of distinguishing right from wrong. In Night, one sees that the victims of the Holocaust will do anything to survive. Elie Wiesel relives the horror when he and many more fell prey to the Nazis and when they did unforgivable things to live.
Wolpe experienced suffering in a different way. He suffered due to a battle with cancer. Suffering is one of the real things that Wolpe mentions that our lives pivot on. We cannot see suffering sometimes, but at the same time we cannot see God, but that does not mean God does not exist. Suffering exists even though we cannot see it.
African-Americans’/ Affrilachians’ Suffering Mirrored: How do Nikky Finney’s “Red Velvet” and “Left” Capture events from the Past in order to Reshape the Present?
“Sonny’s Blues” is a short story in which James Baldwin, the author, presents an existential world where suffering characterizes a man’s basic state. The theme of tragedy and suffering can be transformed into a communal art form such as blues music. Blues music serves as a catalyst for change because the narrator starts to understand that not only the music but also himself and his relationship with Sonny. The narrator’s view of his brother begins to change; he understands that Sonny uses music as an exit of his suffering and pain. This story illustrates a wide critical examination. Richard N. Albert is one critic that explores and analyzes the world of “Sonny’s Blues”. His analysis, “The Jazz-Blues Motif in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”” is an example of how one can discover plot, characterization and jazz motif that builds this theme of suffering.
Suffering is apart of life, just like joy and love is. We can never choose how life treats us but we can always choose how we react and get back up again. Through Fever 1793 we see up close and personal how suffering can affect us, and how sometimes it can affect us in positive ways. How suffering can help turn the page to the next chapter in our lives. How suffering doesn’t always mean losing but also gaining.
Trip, D. (1999), “The Christian view of suffering” [Online], Exploring Christianity. Available from: http://www.christianity.co.nz/suffer4.htm [Accessed 18 April 2008].
According to Sharpe (2015), “when truly deep suffering comes into their lives, Christians will often pray to God for healing or rescue” (para. 2). Based on this fundamental belief in the Christian worldview, it is imperative that every human encounter suffering as this brings a person closer in their relationship with God. The Christian worldview holds a belief that God has a purpose for everything that happens in a person’s life, whether it is joy and happiness, pain and suffering, and life and death. This can be seen throughout the Bible such as “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11, New International Version), and in Ecclesiastes 3 “A Time for Everything.” These core Christian beliefs should cause a person to look past the suffering that he or she is facing, and try to see what kind of positives can come from the current suffering that a person is
According to Brooks (2014), people seek happiness but indirectly obtain several tests that affects their emotions in many ways. Indeed, when people are is questioned about their past, memories coming back to her mind are often the most important positively as negatively. A positive event can be the birth of a child, success. In contrast, a negative event is often links to death, failure, a dismissal, and so on. Suffering or pain also gives us an outside perspective. Without a doubt, suffering makes us human we like it or not. For example, when a friend tells that she has failed an exam and we realize that we could get it easily, it is hard to understand exactly her emotion because we have never been in the situation. But when the same situation arises and you become the concerned, you understand the effect that this failure may have on you emotionally. In this sense, we understand that suffering makes people human because it helps them to be connected to a situation already happened before or which could happen in the future.
People don't truly accept life for what it is until they've actually tasted adversity and went through those misfortunes and suffering. We are put through many hardships in life, and we learn to understand and deal with those issues along the way. We find that life isn't just about finding one's self, but about creating and learning from our experiences and background. Adversity shapes what we are and who we become as individuals. Yann Martel's Life of Pi shows us that adverse situations help shape a person's identity and play a significant role in one's lief by determining one's capabilities and potential, shaping one's beliefs and values, and defining the importance and meaning of one's self.