We will attempt to go through a process where we can reconcile the problem of pain and suffering in our minds. This can be fruitful, but remember that having any of this knowledge is nowhere near a complete understanding, as I still struggle with watching children suffer, natural disasters, and the like. It breaks my heart to see a young innocent life torn by the presence of disease, malnutrition, or abuse. God has made us in His image, and this image imprints a moral compass that God echoes in His Word. The closer we are to God, the greater the pull this compass has on discerning moral issues. As we surrender to the will of God, the Holy Spirit assists us in reading this compass. Though I’m not going into the moral argument here, I will state that those who have faith in God, have a grounding for morality, whereas folks who don’t will have great difficulty grounding morality in subjectivity. Theological study and Apologetics can be interesting, reassuring, confusing, and rewarding all at the same time. However, when you’ve received your understanding, or perhaps made some good points in a debate, how did that help the hurt and suffering so rife in this world?
I too have questions….and semi-logical ramblings if you care to further join me…
Without suffering, what is Love? Without Love, what is forgiveness and redemption? Why didn’t God just skip over all the suffering and create Heaven with no pain? Love can’t exist without free will and choice. With free will, we have the capacity to choose good and evil. Because God is just and perfectly Holy, he can’t abide in the presence of sin. If sin brings death, what is the only thing to forgive sin? Life? Where is life? In the blood (Leviticus 17:11 ) Once blood ceases to circulate, it is unable to reach the cells of the body, then these cells quickly die. No one ever dies until their blood ceases to circulate. The life is in the blood. To balance the scale of death we need life…specifically blood. God did not command us to kill humans for this, he showed Adam and Eve upon the first sin when an animal skin was given to them. This was temporary and only pointed to the One to come.
God is a God of order. Math and physics exist because an all-powerful intelligent being chose to build this universe where these things are evident. Someone studying axiomatic systems will probably find some fault with my simple-minded proof here, but…. If Sin yields death, in order to negate sin, you need the opposite of death….life.
After those exercises, equations, and additional biblical exegesis we will still need something more. We can be so quick to judge the acts or “nonacts” of God as we compare them to what we would do. This is a dangerous line of thought and one the enemy will always use to lead you away from the Lord. It is in our nature to rebel against God as we want to be the gods of our own lives. Yielding to the work of the Holy Spirit will lead us to wisdom that God is God and can see far more than we can.
As finite beings, we are trying to understand the mind of God, an infinite being. Making sense of this universe God created may not lessen the load you carry, but He promises one who can. We have only One who has promised to carry our burdens. When in faith I trust that God has made me in his image, and I recognize that sin in this world brings death and decay and separates us from our Creator, I can begin to understand why we suffer. I still need Jesus after this understanding, and my heart needs a healing only He can offer.
Psalm 55:22 New King James Version (NKJV)
22 Cast your burden on the Lord,
And He shall sustain you;
He shall never permit the righteous to be [a]moved.
Matthew 11:28-30 New King James Version (NKJV)
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am [a]gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”