My daughter's blog contains a recent post on the subject of suffering. Her God-given wisdom and intelligence explored the Calvinistic and open-Theistic views on whether God "allows" or "causes" suffering. I often say, "Wow", as I read her commentary... which is why I so often email my friends with a link to it saying "check this out!"
My friend Dave once asked me, "If God is God, why do bad things happen to good people?" It's a frequently asked question, though I'd never been posed it by someone, especially someone dealing with a friend who was dying of cancer. And though I tried to answer, it turned out he really didn't want an answer. He just wanted someone to listen to his pain.
While I personally think God both allows the sin in this world to result in suffering and He sometimes causes suffering, for a myriad of reasons, something new hit me this morning during church...
We often say that good people suffer so they can relate to others dealing with pain and suffering... so they can empathize and truly feel the pain with them. When we hear of suffering in the world, whether it be in Haiti or Chile or Moscow, where catastrophe has rocked someone's world, it tears at our heart and we can sense their hurt, because we know what hurt feels like from our own, though different, experiences in life. But none of this suffering would even be necessary, if there just were no suffering in the world at all. So why is there any? If God is God, that is...
This is what God whispered to my heart this morning. If we never experienced suffering in life, we couldn't begin to understand how God feels about sin. Sin is so hated by God, that it took a devastating and powerfully painful payment to offset it, which is why Jesus had to go to the cross for us. If no one ever suffered, especially the "good" people, then we couldn't comprehend, and we still don't fully comprehend, the horror of sin and it's consequences, and what amazing lengths Jesus had to go to in order to cover it for us, and to open a door for us to have a personal relationship with God our Father.
This is why the great saints are thankful to God when they get to "share" in the suffering of Christ... when they get to draw closer to understanding and feeling what he went through for us. It causes us to feel his pain and know more fully how very much he loved us in that he was willing to go through it, when he didn't have to, for us.
When I suffer, and my life sufferings have been very minor, in the midst of those times, I think "Oh God! And this is nothing compared to what you went through. Thank you SO much for going through that... for me."
So if for no other reason... we suffer... to understand our God and how much he loves us and overcomes our sin for us.
