Purpose in Suffering

Purpose in Suffering
In a NAZI concentration camp, prisoners were forced to
work in a vile, stinking factory to convert waste and
garbage into a fuel additive for the Nazi war machine.
One day an attack by Allied aircraft leveled the
factory. The next day the prison guards herded several
hundred inmates to one end of the remains. A Nazi
officer ordered them to shovel sand into carts and push
it to the other end of the plant. The next day they
received orders to move the sand back. And so it went,
day after day, hauling the same pile of sand back and
forth.
The pressure mounted until, finally, one older man
started sobbing uncontrollably. Another screamed, and
they beat him into silence. A three-year veteran of the
camp broke into a run toward an electrified fence,
which killed him. Dozens of prisoners went mad and ran
during the days that followed. The guards shot the ones
not electrocuted by the fence.
THOUGHT: We can handle almost any kind of suffering as
long as we believe it has purpose. Even especially
cruel imprisonment and work to help and enemy can be
tolerated if they are for a purpose. But remove purpose
and suffering is intolerable.
1. "There is purpose to suffering" (Patrick M. Morley,
Four Consoling Truths About Suffering, The Seven
Seasons of a Man's Life, 248-249). Cited on KneEmail.