Psalm 13.

                                                                                 John 3, 16.

                                                                                 Isaiah 53, 4-5.

I am still camped out in Huntsville State Park, with my stack of books and searching for truth. My conversational companion is a deer. There is no other sound but for the impressions of speech that I receive from the deer. There is not the sound of other campers or of the wind in the trees, the chirping of birds or the rustling of animals in the woods. Only the impressions of speech that I receive from the deer overcome the otherwise total silence.

“There is something troubling me,” I said to the deer. “Why is it that good people have to suffer and bad people seem to prosper?”

The deer shrugged its shoulders and tossed its head back. “Oh boy! That question seems to always come up.” The deer composed itself for a moment, gathering the resolve to - once again - respond to this oft asked question. “Well, here goes…I assume that you know that the Son of God willingly suffered terribly during His passion. He didn’t have to…He could have stopped it at any time. But He had the will power to endure in order to do His Father’s will and to save you from your sins. So, name some suffering that you have had to endure and you would like to complain about.”

“Well, I guess I am too young to have suffered anything really bad. But, I can think of my uncle Laroy. He had cancer and suffered terribly from that. I will never forget the visit of my grandmother to see her son Laroy when he was near death. We were living in Houston and drove to Dallas where he was hospitalized. He was in a room with several other patients. Only one person could go in at a time so as to not disturb these critical patients. My grandmother, his mother, went in first. But, after a few minutes, she came out to ask the nurse which patient was Laroy, her son. Her son was so discolored and emaciated that his own mother could not recognize him. My question: He was a good man – a good husband and a good father and he was in his middle fifties. I don’t think that he ever harmed anyone. Why did he have to suffer so and die at what was a relatively young age?”

“First of all,” lectured the deer, “you don’t know your uncle’s history and what may have lay ahead in his life had he lived longer and what effect on others and the world his death had. It certainly had an effect on you. You were changed by his suffering and death. Perhaps you value your life and health more as a result. There was a very complex reason for what happened just as there is a reason for everything that happens.”

The deer continued to explain. “Furthermore, you are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. There is always suffering throughout life. The good suffer as well as the evil. It’s all in how you accept it or not accept it. It is how you take it and what you make out of it. When suffering is not accepted, it is even worse. When we accept suffering, it is more bearable. When we fight it and agonize over it, we destroy ourselves. The challenge is to find God’s love and your trust in Him amidst your suffering or the suffering of your loved ones or of all humans in general who suffer from hunger, disease, and natural disasters.

I pondered a moment. “It takes a lot of courage to accept suffering and keep your faith.”

“You chose exactly the right word…the right strength – courage!” The deer was proud of me. “And courage will also serve you well in standing up for and doing what is right. Suffering was the price that Jesus paid for doing God’s will. When you suffer, you share something very special with Jesus.”

The deer seemed to grow stronger and had a look of certainty and determination in its eyes. “It takes courage to endure suffering. It takes courage to accept things that happen and that you did not want to happen and that you do not know why they happened. Only God can give you that kind of courage…the courage to endure anything. And, to get that kind of courage, you have to ask for it. The saints and martyrs had the courage to accept their fate. Where did they get it? From God. How did they get it? Through prayer.”

I continued to be overwhelmed by all that the deer was imparting to me through some mental process that resembled speech but was not speech, per se. I was becoming more attached to the deer, and I wanted to know who or what it really was. Remembering the story of Moses talking with God in the burning bush, I asked the deer, “What is your name?”

“I do have a name. It will be revealed to you very soon,” the deer promised.

NOTE: The dialogue in this article was constructed from the impressions I received during my encounter with the deer and do not represent actual conversation. The gift of Courage that I gained that night was, however, very real.

Links to all of Bob’s columns, including Parts I-VI of this series, can be found at www.newsnet713.com/BobConnor.htm.

There are many references to suffering in the Bible. A few of them are: Tobit Ch 1-3 (Catholic Bible), suffering and suicide; The Book of Job 1, suffering and faith; Psalms 6, praying for deliverance; Lamentations 5, 22, growing through loss; Isaiah 52, 13—53, 12, the suffering servant; John 12, 24–26 the paschal mystery; Mark 15, 16-20, facing hard times; Matthew 27. 27-44, suffering prayer; 2 Corinthians 1, 3–11, God’s presence; 2 Corinthians 11, 16–29, Paul’s suffering; 1 Peter 3, 13—4, 19, suffering as a Christian.