correct view of suffering?

"What Is the Correct View of Suffering?

The Bible teaches an apparent contradiction: Jesus tells his followers to bear their cross; yet, whenever he meets people who are sick, he reaches out and cures them. Was he inconsistent, or have his words been misunderstood?

I think we can solve the problem by making an important distinction between two kinds of suffering:

1. The cross that Jesus carried was the cross of persecution, the kind of suffering that comes from outside because of the wickedness of others who are evil. He suffered deeply within himself, but the source of his anguish was outside himself. Jesus wept over Jerusalem; he was reviled and mocked; he was nailed to the cross and died.

2. The suffering that Jesus probably did not himself endure, and which he took away from those who approached him in faith, was that of sickness, the suffering that tears us apart from within, whether it be physical, emotional, or moral."

'Healing' by Francis McNutt

This was huge for me...a real 'light bulb moment'. Oftentimes we embrace #2 type of suffering easier then we do #1. We may be inclined to 'rebuke' or fight back external 'attacks' often and fiercely and yet do very little about the internal ones we are faced with daily, as if those were part of God's plan.