It isn’t fair. Children die of cancer. Drunk drivers kill innocent people. Families are torn apart over petty things. Young husbands die leaving grieving wives and children. Devastating illness and disease. Wars, storms, earthquakes, famines. So much suffering.
If God is good and He cares about people; if He has it within His power to stop evil from harming us, disease from afflicting us, “bad things” from happening to us, then why doesn’t He? It doesn’t seem fair. He doesn’t seem fair.
For Christians, the problem can be more difficult. I know people who are angry at God and have turned away from Him, rejecting Him completely because of suffering they experienced without any perceived reason for it. Shouldn’t Christians get a “pass” from the pain in this world since we believe and trust in Him? Shouldn't we be exempt since we are “good” people? Or at the very least shouldn't He give us a good reason for our misery? The answer is no.
We are not exempt. We are just as vulnerable to pain and suffering in this world as anyone else. But if God is loving, kind, all-knowing, all-powerful, and in control of all things, why doesn’t He prevent these things from happening? Can any possible good come from our suffering?
In this series of blog posts, I share reflections on what I found in my own search for purpose through the suffering I experienced. Why do we suffer, and is there any real reason for it? Follow along as I share my thoughts. Perhaps you will find help and hope in the midst of your own adversity.
When suffering crashes in on our own personal world, we begin to question what we know about God. We challenge His abilities and motives. We think maybe He isn’t so good, and perhaps He really doesn’t care about what happens to me, or even worse, maybe I am just a pawn waiting in fear for the next slap of pain to hit. If we believe God is responsible for the suffering we encounter, then we begin to question whether He is who He says He is. His entire character and words come under scrutiny, and in effect, we can conclude that God is actually cruel and a liar, unworthy to be trusted. But is He? Could there be a purpose in our suffering?
To understand suffering, we have to go back to the beginning of humanity. The primary reason we experience pain is the fact that we live in a fallen, imperfect world.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were created in perfection by a loving God. He provided a beautiful and abundant place for them to live and enjoy their eternal life with Him. They walked and talked with God, tended the gardens without sweat or difficulty, ate of its fruit, and undoubtedly enjoyed the animals who also resided there. Sin, sickness, death, and suffering had no part in it. It was truly paradise.
But then Satan entered the picture. As one of God’s most beautiful angelic creations, he became vain about his own beauty, and in his heart he desired God’s authority and position. As a result of his pride and rebellion, he and his legion of followers were thrown out of heaven. Since that day, Satan and his minions bring their hatred and destruction against all that God loves, primarily humans.
In the garden, Satan spoke to Eve through a serpent, subtly questioning God’s goodness. Craftily weaving doubt and lies among partial truths, he deceived Eve into sin, followed by Adam who willfully disobeyed God’s rule regarding the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a result of their disobedience and sin, death entered the perfect world God had placed them in. They were cast out of Eden, forced to live out the remainder of their earthly days toiling for their existence and experiencing suffering for the first time. Life became a struggle, death inevitable.
One reason we suffer is simply because we were born into a fallen world where bad things happen, even to “good” people. One man and woman’s disobedience has affected every single human being throughout history. Is it fair that we have to suffer because they made bad choices thousands of years ago? Why should we have to go through pain and agony when we did not choose to eat of the forbidden fruit? Because every single day we do eat of the forbidden fruit. We sin within our hearts because we are imperfect. It is in our DNA because we are part of a fallen creation. Perhaps it’s not that we choose to be fallen, but we simply are fallen, and suffering is the consequence.
It is not now, and never has been, God's desire for us to experience pain. We were not created for misery. But Adam and Eve were presented with a choice to obey or disobey and sadly, they failed. We now suffer because they suffered. It's our inheritance from human, frail, deceived parents. But God is a God of redemption, and in the midst of the worst torment, He always brings hope to those who seek Him. There is hope in the midst of suffering, and His purposes are perfect. If you are in the middle of a raging sea of pain and agony, keep looking to Him. He is the anchor holding you fast.
Stay tuned for Part 2!
(originally posted 7/25/20)
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