In a world that seems to be “going to hell in a handbasket,” many people wonder how a good, loving God can allow such suffering. If God is love and desires that no one should perish (John 3:16), then why does He allow such horrific things to happen in this world? Why does He allow babies to die in their mother’s bellies just a few days before they are due? Why does He allow international terrorists and wars? Why does He allow children to get cancer, be abandoned, trafficked—experience immeasurable pain? Why does He allow natural disasters to destroy entire cities and the lives of those who live there?
He is certainly powerful enough to step in and fix it all. Like Thanos in the Avengers movie, He could simply snap His finger and make it all right. He could choose to send Jesus back and usher in the new heaven and the new earth. He is omnipotent, after all.
He could have even created the world differently. My husband, Kevin, once heard the following as a good explanation or answer to this question … God had three choices when it came to creation:
- He could have created nothing. As a result, no suffering or bad things would happen.
- He could have created the perfect world where everyone follows Him and there is no free will. Again, there would be no suffering, and no bad things would happen.
- He created the world as it is, with free will.
The third option is the only world where true love can exist because the people are free to choose to love Him or not. Unfortunately, that free will led to the fall and sin entering the world. With sin and free will (and even more so with true love because the opportunity to be hurt is higher when we love) always comes pain and suffering.
Now, the flip side of all this is that God identified absolutely horrid actions of people in the Old Testament. For example, the Canaanites made child sacrifices and had all kinds of horrible practices and traditions. God gave them 400 years to stop doing what they were doing. He sent prophet after prophet, telling them to stop. Then He wipes them out entirely for the pain and suffering they were causing. God stopped the suffering. Yet, all people remember is that He is a murderous God who killed an entire civilization when, in reality, He was doing the exact thing people today ask Him to do.
For me, it all goes back to the Garden of Eden. The earth that God originally created was meant to be perfect, without fear and shame, without sorrow and doubt—without suffering. But Adam and Eve chose to disobey God by eating from the one tree He commanded them not to. They allowed Satan to tempt them and question God’s goodness … it’s his age-old tactic to get us to question what God said. Essentially, they chose themselves over God. As a result, all of humanity, from that point forward, would wrestle with the desire to do the same (Genesis 3, Romans 7).
I believe that all of the suffering in this world is a result of that original sin. Sometimes, the suffering is caused by things we choose ourselves, and sometimes, it is caused by things forced upon us. Whether great or small, though, we have all caused suffering in another person's life and had suffering inflicted upon us by other people, sickness, natural disasters, etc. We are all at fault; none of us is without sin, not one (Romans 3:10).
You see, God gave us free will in His great love for us. He allowed us to choose, desperately wishing we would choose Him. Yet, far more often than not, we choose ourselves; we choose not God. And when we live independently of God, we drift farther and farther away from His purpose for our lives. We desensitize ourselves to sin, saying, “Oh, it’s not that bad,” or, “At least I’m not ________ [fill in the blank].” What we tolerate one year, we accept the next and embrace and acknowledge as truth the next.
The other side of this is that God uses our suffering to make us look more like Him, to give us a way to connect with the people He has placed in our lives, and will ultimately use it for our good and His glory (Romans 8:28). In my own story, I have seen God use the hardest places of my life to speak His truth and love into the lives of others experiencing the same things (abortion, addiction, cancer, anger, etc.). If you look back over your life, did you learn more about who you are from times of struggle or times of ease? Stasi Eldrege in her book Defiant Joy puts it this way:
"Do we form no friendships because our friends might be taken from us? Do we refuse to love because we may be hurt? Do we forsake our dreams because hope has been deferred? To desire is to open our hearts to the possibility of pain; to shut down our hearts is to die altogether. The full proverb reads this way: 'Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is life and joy.' The road to life and joy lies through, not around, the heartsickness of hope deferred."
It is not in health that we find joy. It is not in wealth, or even a life without sickness or pain of any kind. It is in His presence that we will know the fullness of joy. Let that sink in. God doesn't merely give us joy. He gives us Himself—joy incarnate. Regardless of our circumstances we can be filled with joy because we are filled with Him when we put our faith in Christ.
The last and possibly most important thing is that God isn’t sitting idly by twiddling His thumbs, indifferent to it all. Throughout history, He has seen the suffering and pain caused by sin and sent Himself, in human form, to experience all the pain and suffering firsthand in the person of Jesus. The Son of Man, fully God and fully human, who lived the life you and I could never live and died the death you and I should have died. The wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23).
Throughout Scripture, we read about God being grieved and the Holy Spirit being grieved, and we see that Jesus wept. We may feel pain and suffering and see it in those we love. We can empathize with others worldwide, but I can’t say we truly understand or feel their suffering.
On the cross, Jesus felt the sin, pain, and suffering of all who had lived, were living, and would live. We think we have pain and suffering in our own personal “worlds.” We have no idea what the pain and suffering of every man, woman, and child for all of time feels like. God does. God feels all that. He is not a bystander; He is participating in all of it.
A woman once shared her story with me. Her stepfather sexually abused her throughout her entire middle- and high-school years. She wrestled with this question of God allowing suffering for years. In seeking an answer from God, He taught her that He was not absent or ambivalent when that happened to her. He was right there with her, feeling her pain and angry that it was happening. And that one day, her abuser would meet Him face-to-face and have to answer for his atrocious sins.
This brings us back to the Garden, the original sin, and God’s choice to allow us free will. So, until Jesus returns to judge the earth and usher in His kingdom, there will be suffering in this world. But our God is faithful in working all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. I would never wish the things that have happened to me on anyone, but I can say without question that God has used those times of suffering to make me the person I am today. Hopefully, someone that looks more like Him, loves more like Him, and is helping ease the suffering of those God places in my path.
And my heart’s desire is that you would choose God, choose Jesus, and follow Him for the rest of your days.