A Word

Today my pastor spoke about believers who go through trials. He brought up people like Paul, who went through ridiculous trials for the sake of the Gospel. When we look at stories like his, we don't understand why God allowed him to go through so much. Lines like "God was making him stronger" wear thin pretty quickly, because after a while you want to go, "God, wasn't he strong enough? When is enough enough?" Lines like, "God used his suffering to reach people for His kingdom" also wear thin. We know God could have orchestrated things differently if He had chosen to.
My pastor came to the conclusion that we humans will never be able to fully understand the suffering of the righteous. However, God had spoken a word to him that made him feel the suffering he was going through had an incredible purpose. I could tell he was totally liberated by this word. The problem is, the word did nothing for me. Though my trials are nothing compared to Paul's or my pastor's, I've had my share. And I felt the word God has given me is very different, though no less satisfactory to me than my pastor's was to him. And I've spoken to other people with still another freeing word.
So what am I to think? Are we all off? Should we all try to figure out which word is right and speak it to all who suffer? I don't think so. I think that my pastor's right when he says we can't humanly comprehend suffering. I don't think any word in the world would do any good if it weren't for the One who spoke it. We are comforted by a word because we are hearing the voice of our Savior, and He's telling us He's in control and He has a reason. The individual word applies to our particular circumstances, but in the end I don't think it really matters. What matters is that God is real, and He speaks to us.