"I spent my whole life fighting. I never learned how to suffer." Former pro fighter and SWAT officer Sean Kennard on a biblical view of pain and suffering and what a year of debilitating illness has taught him about God.

In this episode, host Jeremy Stalnecker sits down with Sean Kennard, Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, professional fighter, and former SWAT officer, who got severely ill a year ago (likely an antibiotic injury), lost nearly 50 pounds, and can no longer eat without his body turning food into "poison." A man who built his life on being a fighter is learning, for the first time, how to suffer well.

Sean and Jeremy work through what Scripture actually says about pain and suffering: why suffering is promised, not optional (John 16:33); the lament Psalms that never resolve (39 & 88); Job's honest anger; Romans 5, how suffering produces perseverance, character, and hope; and the God who is BOTH sovereign AND suffering, a high priest who has been there (Hebrews 4). You'll hear why God cares more about your sanctification than your comfort, why you can't "earn" your healing, and why hope, not the absence of pain, is the line between being crushed and enduring.

If you're in a long season of suffering that isn't turning the corner, illness, grief, a marriage, a wayward kid, a life that didn't go how you planned, this conversation is for you.

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