There is an idea out there that goes something like this: “Hard times produce great men, great men produce good times, good times produce weak men, and weak men produce bad times. Repeat.” While this cycle seems to have some truth in it, this idea is based on a subtle lie.
The lie originates in the pervasive idea that suffering and hardship produces strength. The clichéd phrase that is thrown around is “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” and this line has appeared in various movies (e.g. The Dark Knight and Avengers) and songs (e.g. Kelly Clarkson and Kanye West). A cliché is a culture’s catechism and our culture knows this catechism by heart. This idea is also behind much of the #Metoo movement.
The idea that suffering makes you stronger comes from Nietzsche. And just saying that should already cause us to be concerned with the idea. The specific phrase appears in his work Twilight of the Idols, but he talks about the idea in other places, like in his work Beyond Good and Evil. In that work, he says: “Independence is for the very few; it is a privilege of the strong.”[1] This statement is a foundational idea for Nietzsche: true freedom is only for the strong. The natural question that follows then is how does one become strong? Nietzsche cautions his readers that they might not be ready for this: “Something might be true while being harmful and dangerous in the highest degree.”[2] Can you really handle this, he is asking. If you think you can handle this then you need to realize that the true test of one’s spirit is how much of the truth you can endure. The thinking here is that truth is verified by experiencing some great trial or struggle. Nietzsche warns his readers: “You should not dodge one’s tests, though they may be the most dangerous game one could play…”[3] Through your greatest struggles and tests, you become strong.
This is a central idea for Nietzsche. And he is plain wrong.
Now it can seem like he is right. Last time I went through something hard I learned a lot. A key example could be an exam. I sweated my eyeballs out and I learned a lot. See Nietzsche is right, right? Nope, he’s still wrong.
The reality is that suffering and tests are not in themselves good or bad. It really depends on the person. As a teacher, I see this in my students all the time. One student takes an exam and he works really hard and he learns a lot. Good job. Another student takes the same exam and doesn’t work hard. He struggles terribly through the exam and he didn’t learn a thing. Is he stronger? Not really.
A better example would be drug addicts. They suffer some of the hardest kinds of tests that I know and they are not strong at all. They are some of the weakest people in the world. So there is nothing inherently strengthening about suffering. It can produce strength or it can produce weakness. There is no automatic strength that results from trials.
Now suffering and tests can produce a kind of strength but it is not always the right kind of strength. Sometimes suffering produces bitterness. Sometimes it produces hardness of heart. And sometimes it destroys you. Pharaoh is a key example. He suffered ten plagues and he got weaker and weaker in the process. Now he did get stronger through the plagues but he was stronger in all the wrong ways. And his hard-hearted unbelief ultimately destroyed him.
So contrary to Nietzsche, strength does not come from suffering or hardship. When we understand that, then we can go back to the cycle that I started with and we can see that hard times do not produce great men.
The subtle lie in Nietzsche’s idea that suffering produces strength is the idea that you can make yourself strong. You can take what has happened to you and you can make something from it. This is the motive behind much of the #Metoo movement: take something that has hurt you and make something from it. Make yourself stronger than your suffering. But there is a lie in this idea and it is the lie that you are your own savior. We think meaning comes out of our own efforts. But it doesn’t. Meaning comes from God. Which is another way to say: our suffering is not for us but for Him. All of our lives, even our sufferings, are for His glory. This means that you can’t save yourself.
This drives us to the important and foundational truth that strength does not come from men. It is a gift from God. Strength does not come from hard times or from suffering great trials. It is a pure and simple gift of God. So if you are looking for strength, ask Him. He is the only one who is strong and He loves to give good gifts to His people.
This truth also drives us to look to God in these hard times. We do not look to men or to strength. We look to God. Because He gives strength in hard times and in good times. There is nothing inherently corrupting about good, prosperous times. Men are just as evil in hard times as in good times. The difference then is whether men are standing in the righteousness of Christ. If men have the strength of God then they are strong in good times and in hard times. Which is another way to say, good times do not come from men. Good times are a gift of God.
[1] Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, pg. 41.
[2] Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, pg. 49.
[3] Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, pg. 52.
