Author and speaker Amanda Jenkins acknowledges that a Bible study on suffering isn’t likely a popular topic, but she adds that it can be life-changing. Jenkins, the lead creator of additional content for the hit series The Chosen and the wife of the series creator, Dallas Jenkins, is the co-author of the new Bible study God’s Goodness for The Chosen, which is a companion to Season 4 and explores how God uses suffering to bring about good in the lives of those He loves.
“While God doesn't remove suffering even though we ask,” she told Crosswalk Headlines, “God's goodness eclipses suffering. God's goodness is bigger and more significant and more life-changing and life-stabilizing.”
Season 4 of The Chosen spotlights suffering more so than previous seasons when a character suffers a tragic death, and Jesus’ followers are left wondering why He didn’t intervene. Jenkins said that the Bible study’s eight lessons tackle that issue.
“We're dealing with some of the harder questions,” she said.
The topic of suffering is personal for Jenkins.
“We have a daughter who's chronically ill,” she told Crosswalk Headlines. “And so it's really a double whammy of suffering. Because it's hard for me that I'm watching her suffer, and I can't stop it. And [God’s] not stopping it. And so what seems loving to me as her mom is not the thing He's choosing, but He is love. So, how do you work that out? So those are the kinds of things that we talk all through the study about — what we want from God versus what we get from God."
“But really, ultimately, when you're stuck in grief for a long enough period of time, it takes a long time to start seeing His choices as being better than ours. It takes a long time to see the fruit of His choices sometimes.”
She co-authored the study with her husband and Douglas S. Huffman, professor of New Testament for Talbot School of Theology at Biola University in California. Each season of The Chosen includes a Bible study companion.
Jenkins says she sees suffering “differently” in light of writing the study.
“Instead of praying for relief, I'm learning to pray for more of God Himself — and the goodness that He gives through it and what He's doing through it,” she said. “If He chose to release us today, I'd throw a party. But I'm learning to see suffering so much differently, which is cliche. Sufferers, since the dawn of time who suffer with the Lord, will say the same thing. I'm not saying something new. I'm just saying it's new for me.”
Photo Credit: ©PR Amanda Jenkins
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.