The Discipline of Suffering:
Redeeming Our Stories of Pain by Dr Katherine Thompson
The Discipline of Suffering is published by Acorn Press and is shortlisted for the 2024 Sparklit Awards.
“The best outcome is found in facing the challenges in front of us one at a time. In doing so, we gain purpose and clarity about our future and who we want to be; we are able to accept ourselves, and have a sense of belonging and place in our community; and we learn to be resilient and persevere through difficulties.” (The Discipline of Suffering)
The Discipline of Suffering
Book Review by Craig Lawn
There is power in this book. Katherine has the right and authority to speak as she has walked through the darkest valley in the shadow of suffering. She speaks clearly and forcefully and we need to listen and learn.
This is a book written by and to Christians but it has a wisdom for all that suffer, or for those that comfort the suffering. How she not only endures, but has been positively transformed by suffering, is a marvel and a mystery.
For the majority of us who believe that there is a God some of the most challenging questions is why God allows suffering, and if an all powerful loving God why he does not intervene. Katherine confronts this. She also riles against people who did not sit with her and comfort her but just used trite words or Bible verses as platitudes to provide an answer, or to “heal her”.
This is not an academic or theological text. It represents hard learnings living with ongoing suffering and pain. She states but does not dwell on the perfect storm of her own suffering. My “existing chronic pain left me without a sense of control. Life often felt overwhelming, and God was all that I had to cling to. In “the space of a couple of years, my brother died of cancer, my son was severely bullied at school, my marriage broke down, my health was shattered, and my financial security was no longer guaranteed.” “The suffering of the crucified Christ speaks to people in pain.”
This authenticity and personal experience powers this book, but she also draws on the voices of other real people that have experienced different types of suffering and that share their stories and learnings.
The book is deeply personal but is also well researched drawing on her skills and her work as a mental health social worker and counselling therapist in private practice. It is practical and enables the reader with insightful questions and a plethora of tools.
The intensity of her experience has meant that she has had to totally deconstruct her life, values and beliefs before rebuilding in hope. Because of this she is sometimes stark, even black and white in her views. Our personal experience of suffering may not be as intense and may not require the level of discipline in dealing with suffering. However, the danger in any tempering of her approach is that we water down the power and slip into a grey, lukewarm compromise.
She can “teach us about how to sit with pain, make sense of it, externalise it and then find a way forward on a new path that provides us hope with a future.”
“In the Divergent series of books, by Veronica Roth, the main character Tris has to hide the fact that she is different to the other people around her … On the final page of the last book in the series, we read this poignant observation: ‘Since I was young, I have always known this: Life damages us, every one. We can’t escape that damage. But not, I am also learning this; we can be mended. We mend each other.’ ” (Allegiant quoted in The Discipline of Suffering)
There are may different types of suffering, some self made but many outside of our control or existential. I don’t know if I have the same level of courage or discipline that Katherine has to deal with these sufferings. However, she has deep wisdom painfully won through suffering, and from reflecting and meditating on this. There is power in this book. Read it – perhaps you and I can also be equipped, enabled and unleashed.
Dr Katherine Thompson’s website
The Discipline of Suffering at Acorn Press
Thanks to Acorn Press for the review copy.
 |  The 2024 Shortlist is out!Ten titles have been shortlisted for the 2024 Australian Christian Book of the Year Award. The Australian Christian Book of the Year will be announced during the SparkLit Awards Night on 22 August 2024 at St Alfred’s Anglican Church, Blackburn North. Register here to attend in person or receive a livestream link. |
The Australian Christian Literature Awards encourage Christian writing and publishing that helps people discover Jesus in a way that is authentic and culturally meaningful. The SparkLit Awards recognise and encourage excellence in Australian Christian writing and publishing.
These awards are given annually for for original writing by Australian citizens:
SparkLit Awards
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