Take this logical reality check: you can’t know hope until you suffered hopelessly! That’s right, hope can only be known to people who lacked it and can’t grasp the idea of it. Hope can never been known to somebody who never had any need of it. This is not the type of hope where you “wish” upon a shooting star and you get a new car; this is the type of hope where you struggle to get by and keep suffering and bite your lip because one day, just one day, you may have an opportunity to afford better. Now this begs two questions: first, do we throw ourselves into an intentional hell in order to experience hope?; and, secondly, why do we need hope if it is only produced by suffering? More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. – Romans 5:3-5 The first question of intentionally seeking suffering for the purposes of obtaining hope: the answer is “no.” Don’t you have enough problems that you don’t have time to go seek out some more on your own? Paul writes to a largely egalitarian crowd in Rome and says its not about the type of suffering, but our response to it. For Rome, just like it is for New York, suffering does not mean becoming limbless or being diagnosed with a disease, although it can be, rather, it is the situation where one finds him or herself that is beyond the scope of discomfort– that is, pain and anguish! This is tangible suffering. We don’t avoid suffering through situations, we endure them and let them pass by and through our lives. Having survived the pain, whether it is real or fantastic, we change and develop a kind of grit and complexity of character. This is what we want in our lives if we all got 99 problems. We want to have something to show for our sufferings, to know that our time and energy was not spent in vain! Moving on to the second question then; why do we need hope in our lives if we live happy lives without any suffering? That answer is a bit more easier and a little bit more illogical– to be reminded of something better that awaits than the pleasure of our current situation. Look at what the Apostle Paul writes, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:6, 10 ESV). We suffer in life regardless of whether we want to or not. That’s just the way it is, suffering cannot be avoided. So if we have to suffer, we should suffer in hope of knowing something better is coming. If we let this “hope” blossom into the full consummation of sanctification in our lives, that is to become become much more than our wretched shortcomings through the blood of Jesus spilled at Calvary for a life worthy to be lived; then we have achieved the purpose of suffering and can be hopeful for it. We suffer to hope and hope comes from suffering.