From two great poets in their own right Nick Cave and Nick Wolerstorff, here are two similar, summarizing statements on suffering from two longer pieces.

The utility of suffering, then, is the opportunity it affords us to become better human beings. It is the engine of our redemption.

—Cave

God is more mysterious than I had thought—the world too. There’s more to God than grace; or if it’s grace to one, it’s not grace to the other—grace to Israel but not grace to Jeremiah. And there’s more to being human than being that point in the cosmos where God’s goodness is meant to find its answer in gratitude. To be human is also this: to be that point in the cosmos where the yield of God’s love is suffering.

—Wolerstorff