Confronting Suffering

Because suffering hurts, we try to avoid suffering. Because pain hurts, we try to avoid pain. As simple as these statements sound and are, we must fully understand their impact and their meaning upon our life when we suffer. When we suffer, in the back of our mind we ask questions like, “Do I have to go through this, do I have to deal with this, and can’t I just avoid this?” When we suffer, we must learn to confront our suffering head-on rather than trying to avoid suffering. As long as we run away from the suffering, the suffering has us on the run, living on the run, and out of control. When we confront our suffering, at the very least we learn and grow from the act of confrontation. We also learn from our mistakes in dealing with suffering. This confrontation process is an example of hitting the problem of suffering head-on. We must deal directly with the pain, rather than trying to run away from the pain by using our mind. When we make up our minds to confront suffering, we put ourselves in control rather than letting the suffering control us.