Does God Suffer?

I've been thinking a lot about suffering lately. And by lately, I mean for the past six months.

I don't know how this happened, but during the past six months I've really come face-to-face with my own brokenness. It seems like everyday my brokenness pops up out of nowhere to say, "Hi, how ya doin'? Remember me?" I know that suffering leads to perseverance, which leads to character, etc. (Romans 5:3-4), but I honestly cannot see how my present suffering will lead to any future hope. All I can see are my doubts, fears, and despair.

It also doesn't help that when I am suffering, all I can picture God saying is, "Suck it up and take it like a man. Don't be such a crybaby."

But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe, just maybe, God can actually relate to my suffering.

If Jesus is both fully God and fully human at the same time, then that means Jesus had the full human experience, right? And as I skim through the Gospel, I see Jesus experiencing not only the highs of the human experience, but also the lows. Soon after He was baptized, Satan tempted Him in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). He wept for the death of his friend Lazarus (John 11:35). In Gethsemane, Jesus' soul was "overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death" (Matthew 26:38). And then, of course, there is the cross, where Jesus died humiliated and abandoned.

So the next time I feel like no one can possibly understand what's going on in my head, maybe I should reconsider.

Do you believe God can relate to human suffering?