Whether suffering comes from the wicked things people do to one another, or from natural disasters, every honest person wonders, “If there is a God, and He is good, why do bad things happen?
It’s a fair question. No one likes the suffering that comes when bad things happen to them.
Some people believe suffering is a good argument against the existence of God. In response, American commentator Dennis Prager observes that the believer in God does indeed have to explain the problem of evil, but the atheist has to explain everything else, especially goodness. Goodness is never a natural state of things; it has to be pursued.
With that, how might one who believes God is good try to explain the problem of evil and suffering?
When suffering comes because of the wicked acts of others, the answer points straight at the fact that mankind has free will.
If people are truly free, they are able to make a full range of decisions – to do good things and to do bad things; to help others or to hurt others.
It is impossible to have free will and yet have a God (or any outside force) constrain choices that have negative consequences.
On the other hand, if people do not have free will, then the matter of what is good and what is bad is irrelevant – without free will, everything that happens is inevitable.
Suffering proves that there is free will, because where there is free will, there is the possibility of a choice for good or for evil.
This is illustrated in the first chapters of the Bible. Even in paradise, the Garden of Eden, God allowed for choices. He put two trees in the garden. And He told the man and the woman He made, if you eat the fruit of one tree, you will live; but if you eat the fruit of the other tree, you will suffer. Incredibly, He respected their freedom to decide for themselves. And when they chose to eat “the fruit of the other tree”, He did not stop them. And they suffered the consequences.
So it has always been.
But if people can choose to do evil, they can also choose to do good. Indeed, if good ever is to triumph over evil, they must always choose good, no matter how dark evil seems.
What about the terrible suffering from “natural evil” — “small scale” sufferings like cancer or birth defects, and “large scale” disasters like earthquakes and tornados and so forth? Such things do not come from an individual’s choice to do evil.
The Christian view is that evil is real, and we live in a fallen world – it’s not just human beings who can bring forth things that cause suffering. There is an unseen enemy. Jesus spoke of this in John 10:10 when He said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Note in this verse and all others in the Bible, there is not one place where Jesus says He will stop all suffering and evil in this life. Rather, He offers a better way against the one who brings evil. But it must be chosen. And that way is a person, Jesus Himself. He promises He will never leave us or abandon us. And when He is present, His Spirit can comfort and fill your soul in ways your head cannot begin to understand.
When we choose Him, can receive hope, we can receive life – not just when circumstances improve, but even when they don’t.
The response to suffering is the decision to trust Jesus, every day, even when it hurts, even when it seems futile, even when the suffering is overwhelming.
To those who trust their lives to Him, the promise of God is not only that He will be with us, but that for every crucifixion, there will be a resurrection. And that’s good news indeed.
Such is our hope, especially in suffering.