God is suffering (the grace/mercy of God)

This is part of a series reflecting on God-talk and Buddhist terminology. It is an opening to dialogue, not a final word on the subject.

Suffering. It's something that, if we were to be honest, we would list our relationship with as "complicated". You hear or read that humans want to avoid suffering, and yet if that were true, then why do we seem to spend so much time seeking it out or creating the conditions necessary for it to thrive?

In some sense, our egos may actually want suffering. They want the challenge and the conflict in which suffering is one side of a dichotomy which also involves some notion of pleasure. A kind of pleasure that can be captured, contained and curated. A pleasure that can be extended forever. Which is why the ego spends so much time rewriting memories and imagining an ideal future.

It isn't the case that cherishing memories or anticipating the future is somehow wrong or destructive, it is rather the issue of how and why this happens. In any case, the ego also needs suffering to justify its own over-blown sense of importance as the problem solver. If suffering ends, then the effort to solve the problem of suffering ends.

Another tangle in the topic of suffering is just what it entails. Does it include pain and discomfort? How do misery and despair fit in?