This post contains a link to a lecture series by Elisabeth Elliot on Suffering – Suffering is not for nothing. I linked part 4 and recommend parts 5 and 6 also. Additionally, I linked a site that has 40 or more talks by her about life topics, several may be of interest to you. Her purpose was to teach a biblical perspective on suffering, as Christians are called to suffer (those mainstream churches that are about other things, are not biblical).