Suffering is an integral and inescapable part of human experience. In fact it is essentially what makes us human. It speaks precisely to the imperfection that is inherent in our finite human nature. Our imperfect human nature, in essence, guarantees that suffering in one form or another will afflict us in the course of our earthly sojourn. And the fact that we may, by any reasonable moral standard, regard ourselves as good does not ensure us freedom from the bitter, biting experience of suffering. In fact, strangely but truly, in life as we know and experience it, quite often it is the good people of this world who suffer most. Job in the Bible is a classic case in point. As the Bible reveals, Job was a person of the highest moral integrity. Yet his life was relentlessly battered and burdened by calamitous and catastrophic suffering. But while exemplary and exceptional goodness does not exempt us from suffering, the good person whose faith is anchored in God is given the power to turn his suffering into a blessing. God bestows on him the ability, as Job eventually experienced, to thrive in spite of suffering. Thus this book shows how God enables the good person of faith not only to triumph over any and all suffering but more importantly also to transform his suffering into a blessing.
