A coworker asked me this last week after her dad got sick and honestly I fumbled it. I know the big theology answers but in the moment they felt kind of thin. Jesus didn’t promise us it’d be easy, he said “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). How do you answer this when it’s not a debate but a real hurting person asking?
I find that any reason anyone may provide for the reality of human suffering comes up short.
I find the best medicine is to do my best to share in their suffering.
As an example, it just so happens I spent some time yesterdsy making routine visits to facilities assigned to me as a certified ombudsman for our state dept of aging.
There are times the suffering I see can be demoralizing. But more often than not, the compassion and caring I observe amoung the staff and the residents is powerfully edifying, in a way I don’t normally see in my community.
that’s a good way to put it. sitting in it with someone beats having the perfect answer. romans 12:15 about weeping with those who weep is kind of what i missed with my coworker, i was trying to explain it instead of just being there
If sinners don’t suffer, why will they stop sinning?
honestly i don’t think suffering is a punishment meter. jesus said it plainly about the man born blind, it wasn’t because of his sin (john 9:3). sometimes it just hurts and we’re called to show up anyway.
Even so, the Lord has to discipline when we sin or we won’t stop sinning.
There we go - the question of the ages.
There is an answer, but there isn’t a short answer. So what you say, will (should), depend on the context.
This world is a very difficult place to live because it’s supposed to be. God intends that we face, endure, and overcome difficulties. Good news is that He promises to walk with us through our difficulties, as we rely on His strength. It’s for a very short time, and eternity beckons.
His intent is not that we merely have a good career, or a notable family, or lots of friends who think we are special. His intent is not that we have a an easy, trouble-free life. His intent is that we demonstrate what sort of person we will choose to be when troubles come.
And He does not limit the magnitude of our troubles. Jesus prayed while sweating great drops of blood that God would take the cup of crucifixion away from Him. But there was no other way. God knew what His Son could endure. And His Son’s endurance accrued to His Son’s exaltation.
Same as yours. Your endurance will accrue to your elevation, honor, and shared glory with the Son.
God allows difficulties and suffering in your life so that you have an opportunity to choose to be like Jesus - even when it’s really really hard.
God created us with free will. This was done even with the certainty that at some point we would choose to go our own way apart from him. The curse he put on the world was insufficient to discourage our natural self-destructive selfishness.
Gen 6:5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
As a result, God brought the flood on the earth and shortened man’s lifespan as well as allowing disease and changed the environment to allow winter and droughts. These hardships drove man to the edge of survival. This level of distress was such as to motivate humans to care for each other to some degree and even for some to be interested after God.
One can observe that after the Industrial Revolution life has gotten less and less uncomfortable. As a result increasingly people have gotten the resources and time to indulge many of the same self-destructive inclinations they had before the flood.
In addition to the natural suffering we have had since the flood, we also have to endure the harm we do each other as well as the world system that Satan has devised to destroy families and advance collectives.
Sadly, there seems to have been no other way for God to motivate us to turn back to him other than the natural suffering we all experience. God is not so much interested in making us comfortable as this only seems to empower us to seek after ourselves.
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Why the certainty to go our own way? What would be the property that God called “very good”, that would result in our certain downfall?
That’s the stubborn predicament, acknowledging that everything that is natural was created by God.
I think the best answer is what Jesus Himself told us.
"Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matthew 13:24-30
Be blessed, be a blessing.
Peter
pater15 that part about him walking with us really lands. i keep thinking of isaiah 43:2, through the waters, i will be with you. it doesn’t explain the why, but it’s kind of the answer i wish i’d given my coworker.
Well, the ultimate answer is this - no knuckleheads allowed in heaven. Hardship weeds out the knuckleheads.
An interpretation of Job:
God says to Satan “did you notice my servant Job? He believes in me and his behavior proves it.”
Satan replies “change his context, and he will stop believing. Let me devastate him. His responding behavior will prove that he doesn’t really believe, unless everything is good for him. Make life hard. He will stop believing, and curse you.”
God does not require perfect behavior from us in order to qualify us for eternal fellowship with Him. He only requires us to believe in Him, even when it’s hard. He knows our limits. We don’t, at least not until we’ve lived through it.
Being given free will was “very good”. How we used it was not.