I have had a time with this topic over the last semester and thought it would be a good opportunity to get some thoughts out on the subject of suffering.

Why do we suffer? What is the point of loving a God that allows it? Why did this happen to me? I go to church and I pray, am I not doing enough? Is it OK to be angry with God?

First and foremost, I do love God deeply, so before I get burnt at the stake, remember that. 

Have you ever been coasting along with your relationship with God and things just take a turn for the worst, maybe a loved one dies, or a baby is aborted or even a lover says that they don’t love you anymore. It hurts. It’s scary. And it rocks our world. The truth of this world is that it is fallen, imperfect, and chaotic. Sometimes shit happens and there is no plausible explanation that our finite minds can wrap itself around. Thats the problem of sin. The worst part of the whole mess are the what if’s and the where now’s. The problems with those questions are that they are based in the future and the past. “If I had taken all my vitamins, the baby would have been fine” or “Its OK, I’ll find another job and work double overtime to pay the bills.” When ambiguity shows its teeth, we retreat to another time, and try to escape the present hurt. We are present creatures, and God is a present God.

Exodus 14:14 is one of my new favorite verses, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.” (NIV)  The Jews were in a time of great remorse, waiting for God to come through and make their lives easy and it seemingly would never happen, Moses had faith in their weakness. A lecture on suffering puts it like this, there are three things that we can do in times of ambiguity, we can withdraw, we can deny or we can be still. Sometimes the only thing we can do is fall to our knees and cry to God. Some of the most spectacular interactions with God in the Bible have been with men and women who are at the end of their ropes. 

All those men and women in the Bible, if you look at their stories, their pain and suffering was not in vein. All the accounts of trials were to stretch and mold the person to carry on a greater task. Think of weight training. At first you feel like a ten ton truck just hit you, but after time and persistence, the weight gets easier to lift and you’re looking like The Terminator. The end result is what is desired, to look ripped. If a person gives up after the first day, that end result will not be met. We have to push and work and focus on God through our pain, and the end result is magnificent!

Another lecture on suffering put it like this. There are three days that shaped the history of the world. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the most predominant days in theological study. On Friday, Jesus was crucified, our hope died, our world was rocked. The disciples and followers of Christ were brought to their knees. Im sure they were saying to themselves “it wasn’t supposed to end like this!” Christianity suffered a huge blow. Then on Sunday, our hope was resurrected the light was bright again. What happened on Saturday? If we put ourselves into the disciples shoes, I’m sure we could relate to such a loss. Im sure they were questioning their teacher, was he really who he said he was? What now? He must have been a lunatic! Why did I spend three years of my life following this guy? My life isn’t any better because of it. Uncertainty, pain, anguish, remorse, suffering, grief all were experienced on Saturday. And God was experiencing all of those emotions as well. He was right there with them. Sometimes we think we will always be stuck on Saturday, but I assure you that Sunday will come. We just need to be still. I understand that it is a tough thing to do, because the problem with three day stories is that we don’t know that its a three day story until the third day.

So in closing, I don’t know or fully understand pain and suffering. I do know that everyone will hurt at some point. I also know that there are two roles that we can take, one of a victim or one of a survivor. We can choose. I also know that catastrophe is also chaotic, stemming from a chaotic world, and it is not our place to try to put things in order. I also know that when we experience loss, it’s going to hurt and its not going to go away for a while, but its what we do with it that can make us a stronger, fuller creation and it’s always better to wrestle with God and tell Him we are pissed and hurting, rather than saying nothing at all.