Christianity Today: Is God Punishing Me?, by Kristen Wetherell & Sarah Walton (Co-Authors, Jesus Will Meet You There (2026)):

Suffering. Nobody wants it. And rarely can we make sense of it.

That’s why, when life hurts, we often look for someone or some­thing to blame. Something is awry, and our pain needs somewhere to go.

At times, there’s an easy target for our blame. Someone ran a red light, and their negligence is now the cause of our debilitating back pain; a friend spread a false accusation against us, and we’re left to pick up the pieces of our reputation; a doctor’s error turned a routine surgery into the heart-wrenching loss of our loved one.

But that logic has nowhere to go when a diagnosis shatters our once-comfortable life or a tornado rips through our town, taking the life we knew right along with it.

Most often, we turn in one of two directions: We blame God, who we trusted to protect us from such senseless heartbreak, or we blame ourselves, convinced we must have done something to de­serve such pain.

Like many of us, the disciples wanted to make sense of the suffering they saw. Therefore, when they came across a blind beggar in John 9, they boldly asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his par­ents, that he was born blind?” (v. 2). In their eyes, there was no third option. Someone was to blame.

Let the implications of this sink in for a moment. The disciples weren’t trying to be cruel by questioning this poor man and his par­ents. It simply exposes our human tendency to try to make sense of what seems senseless. After all, if we can pinpoint the cause, maybe we can prevent that same hardship from coming to us.

Have you been on the receiving end of this logic? …

Sometimes those accusations and assumptions come from others, and sometimes they come from within our own troubled hearts. Ei­ther way, they stem from the belief that we should have complete control over (or at least know the cause of) our circumstances.

Of course, at times we suffer the natural consequences of our choices. (For example, if I make unwise financial decisions, I may fall into debt.)

However, much of the suffering we endure is simply part of liv­ing in a fallen world groaning under the curse of sin, death, and decay. We can’t control the genetics we were born with, the stock market crash, the drunk driver who careened across three lanes, the flash flood that even weather radar systems didn’t see coming, or the countless other challenges that come at us without notice. No, most of the suffering in this world contains mysteries that God alone knows. It’s prideful to believe we have more control over our cir­cumstances than we really do.

Thankfully, Jesus doesn’t leave us to our floundering selves.

Jesus confronted the disciples’ distorted belief system: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3, ESV). …

God could display his miraculous power by changing our cir­cumstances in one fell swoop, making others stop and wonder for a time, Who is this God who does such miracles? But when others around us (both Christians and non-Christians) see us enduring in suffering because Jesus is a greater treasure than the relief we desire, it con­tinuously puts God’s power, glory, and worth on display to all those who are watching.

My fellow sufferer, if you have heard the whispers that you are to blame for your hardships but you see no clear correlations between sin and its natural consequences, take heart. Your suffering isn’t re­duced to the effect of your choices.

Jesus tells us clearly in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” We may not be able to make sense of the why behind our circumstances, but we are not left with­out hope. We can face the difficult days ahead with the peace that Jesus gives, knowing his redeeming power will have the final word. He has overcome the world, and if we are his followers, then we, too, will be overcomers.

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