It was a common view...
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It was a common view in the ancient world that suffering was punishment for one's sins. While there are few in modern times who would ascribe wholesale to such thinking, there are perhaps those who still believe it in a modified form. Victims of rape "deserve" what they got, for example. Yet suffering can be a great motivator. President Bill Clinton as a boy lived in a poor home with an abusive father, and much of his energy early in his life was given over to trying to protect both his mother and his younger brother. There is no doubt that that background gave him a hope and a motivation to try to create a society in which children are not abused, and poverty is, if not eliminated, then eased. Those who have grown up in alcoholic and drug-addicted environments often seek to become helping and/or healing professionals, including the profession of ordained ministry. Even in the ordinary process of daily prayer, when one lifts up intercessions on behalf of those in need, such compassion helps to bear the burden of suffering. In such ways, many have taken their own suffering and used it as a means to help to bear the sins and griefs of others. -- Johnson-Hoy
