Is There A Reason For Suffering?

by Todd Latham

It is something anyone can recognize as part of the harsh reality of living in this world.  There are families struggling to make ends meet, with children not knowing where their next meal will come from.  Individuals who have sat in countless doctor’s waiting rooms seeking some sort of relief, if not just an identifiable reason, for the pain that daily consumes their lives.  Babies born with deformities and disease whose existence takes every effort to make it to the next day.  How can an all-loving God allow all this bad stuff to persist in this world?  While the question may vary from person to person, it is a question everyone asks at some point in their life in an attempt to make sense of the tragedies of the human experience.

It is not that this question is not fair or warranted.  In fact, it demonstrates an awareness and acknowledgment that there is a conflict; something has gone wrong somewhere along the way and needs to be remedied.  Often this leads to looking for someone to blame because somebody needs to be held accountable for the wrongdoing on this earth.  While it may seem satisfying to blame a grizzled old cosmic being that plays dice with humankind, much of the hardship can be traced to the consequences of human free will.  As the saying goes, money makes the world go round.  Whatever it takes to make the machine run faster, better, stronger, no matter who gets trampled over, forgotten, and left in its wake.  The outcomes of human decisions are the explanation for much of the suffering people experience in this world.  However, this raises the question, what about the innocent bystander?  The people diagnosed with cancer or caught in earthquakes and natural disasters, even those taken advantage of by people involved in corruption and scandal for their own gain, where is the reason when they have no choice in the matter?  Trying to hold people accountable reduces to nothing more than a game of Whack-A-Mole as inevitably, one that pops up ultimately gets away.  But blaming some evil force as the root of all this injustice only goes so far because why would God not just do something about it?  Seems like an all-powerful God is not really what He says He is if He cannot stop innocent people from being subjected to unjust suffering.

The fact of the matter is that some suffering just happens and cannot be explained away at the hands of human decision.  Even the most faithful of Christians come face to face with this wall, and everything they thought they believed comes apart at the seams because it does not make any sense.  The nonexplanation becomes the explanation people must be comfortable with, leaving everyone with a choice.  To be okay with the things that cannot be explained, or turn away from God because it is unacceptable.  But perhaps there is a third option within this choice if one chooses to rotate the box and look from a different angle.  What if all the sorrow, evil, and chaos in this world ceased to exist?  No more people going hungry or thirsty.  No more people dying from a drug overdose.  No more loneliness.  Seems like a place like that would be a lot like Heaven.  Perhaps, in a way, this world is designed to fail to demonstrate what is lacking and tug at the human heart that something is wrong to indicate there is a place that is right.  Maybe if God never let a bad thing happen to anyone, people would not value the opportunity of eternal life in a place where there is no more death, suffering, or pain.  While this option does not necessarily provide a satisfactory answer to the question, it can provide a sense of peace to the situation, redirecting the gaze to where God’s creation is intended to be.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  It is often that when confronted with the affliction of this world, a reason is sought after to give reason to the madness.  These reasons are the answers that are wanted, but they are not the answer that is needed.  In God’s infinite wisdom, God’s love became human, not in some logical explanation.  In God’s great mercy, God’s power raised up His Son in new life from death, not in stopping the suffering from happening.  It is not an answer to why there is suffering, but it is an answer to what God is doing with suffering.  God’s answer is found in the character of Jesus, who answers the riddle in ways nearly impossible to comprehend.  In the pieces of life that would rather be discarded and forgotten, Jesus gives meaning to those pieces for everyone to get to a better place.  So, is there a reason for suffering?  There is a reason for the suffering until there is not, but there always is.