If God is all powerful and all good why doesn’t he intervene to stop suffering? This is a question on the mind of many in the developed West.
“Better than I deserve!”
On a daily basis I come across several people in my job. When I greet them I typically ask, “How are you doing?” or “How is your day so far?” The typical response I get is, “Busy!” followed by a string of negative things. Even things that seem to be positive and self imposed such as taking children to recreational activities, seem to be infused with negativity and suffering.
I contrast this with my experience in working in developing countries and with the homeless. The first favela I entered on a trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I encountered a young woman who was paralyzed from the neck down. She had no wheel chair or any effective means of transportation. I remember walking into a room where she laid on a sleeping cot placed on the ground. She smiled, laughed, told jokes and was so thankful to be alive with her family. She may never know this, but she was the first to force me to question what it means to be fully alive.
Courtesy of Flickr.com by mclolumnasana
Every year during the winter months our church hosts a program that gives the homeless, those who are financially strained, or anyone really an opportunity to have multiple course well cooked meals, to socialize, and to have a place to sleep. On occasion I will sit at a table with guests and learn about their lives. I can recall asking one guest how he is doing. He responded, “Better than I deserve!” with a jolly smile.
There is no secret that in the situation of the paralyzed woman and homeless man suffering is part of their life. But suffering doesn’t seem to have power over them. Oh, and before I forget. Despite their suffering, their faith in God is the solid foundation to which they anchor their lives.
So based on the stories about the paralyzed woman and the homeless gentleman we can say that God is present with them in the midst of their suffering guiding them through it. I wrote about how God guides us through our suffering in my previous post, Conquering Suffering.
But this still doesn’t answer the question of why God doesn’t intervene to stop suffering.
Freedom and Sin
Love is a result of freedom, but so is suffering. To be free is to potentially experience suffering as a result of our own actions or the result of other people’s actions. We can’t have love without the opportunity to choose love as opposed to evil.
For instance if my marriage to my wife were to be forced it simply wouldn’t be a marriage. Because marriage requires the freedom of two people to willingly say “yes” to each other. Love can’t be forced. In much the same way God can’t force us to love Him.
The potential for suffering or sin increases when God is outright rejected. When we use our gift of freedom to believe that we don’t need to be informed by God in our decisions sin can take hold.
The twentieth century was the bloodiest in recorded human history. The oppressive regimes of Stalin in the former Soviet Union, Hitler of Nazi Europe, Mao Xedong of Communist China, Pol Pots Communist Cambodia are responsible for inciting systematic genocide against ethnic or classes of people. All these men used their freedom to explicitly reject God and thought they could create their own version of heaven on earth.
If God were to intervene when things are bad and let everything be when things are good then he would be breaking his own fundamental law of freedom. Like a loving parent God wishes to guide us not control us. There’s a good reason no one likes to be in a controlling relationship.
So if God allows evil can anything good come of it? Let’s ask one more question. What I described above doesn’t really help with the explanation of why the paralyzed woman is enduring suffering. It’s something totally out of control. So, can there be any purpose to her suffering or to our suffering that is totally out of control?
Opportunity To Be Strengthened
God allows for the possibility of suffering for a greater good. When it comes to experiencing suffering or sin we have two options. One the one hand we can acquiesce: give into it, or let it control us. On the hand we can conquer through it, as I wrote about in my previous post.
Sin takes place when there is an absence of God. But we can invite God into our suffering and conquer through it. To show that it will not determine the goodness of our life.
Chiara Luce Badano was an Italian young woman who at the age of eighteen was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer. She did not have very long to live. During her time in the hospital she said that “I suffered a lot, but my soul was singing.” Chiara was remembered for her resilience in her suffering. Despite experiencing excruciating pain she spent much of her final day with other terminally ill hospital patients making them laugh and bringing joy to them in the final moments of their lives. If you Google pictures of Chiara on her deathbed all the pictures show her smiling. Chirara transformed the lives of my during her suffering including the life of a doctor who treated her. The doctor reflected: “Through her smile, and through her eyes full of light, she showed us that death doesn’t exist; only life exists.” When asked how she can have so much joy in her suffering, she responded, “I try to love Jesus as much as I can.”
Chiara’s suffering not only strengthened her, but strengthened those around her.
God can allow suffering to bring about a greater good. A greater good that we can’t always see until the suffering has passed.
