Hope in Suffering

My article from this week's edition of the Rockford Squire:

Often tragic events leave humans wondering, “Why would God allow this?”  “Did God cause this?”  “Is God really a loving Father?”

 

We are told that God is good, and we know that He is all-powerful, because that’s just part of the definition of being God.  We also observe that there is substantial suffering in the world and that tragedies and other events occur which cause pain and suffering for people. 

 

We cannot deny the existence of suffering, so sometimes that inspires people to wonder if God is really good or if God is really all-powerful.  It seems to us that if God is good, then He would certainly use His power to prevent these things from happening, and if He is all-powerful, His goodness would certainly move Him to intervene.  This leaves us to wonder how we can reconcile our experience of suffering with the fact of God’s power and goodness.

 

The trouble is that we do not know all things, but only know as much about God as He has chosen to reveal.  He has revealed Himself to humanity through the life of Jesus and the other writings of the Prophets and Apostles foretelling and proclaiming His life, death, and resurrection.  Even though He has not revealed the inner workings of His mind or the reasoning behind His ways, He has demonstrated His goodness to us in Jesus. 

 

This is where we look for Hope.  He chose not to immediately inflict upon humanity the well-deserved punishment for sin, but He Himself came down to be our substitute in suffering death and condemnation.  By this, He demonstrates His goodness to us, and if He has intervened in this self-sacrificing way on our behalf, we can certainly trust that He will do all things for our good.  While we may not understand events in the moment, we occasionally get to see how they work out in hindsight, and even when we don’t, we know that He is for us and not against us because of the work of Jesus recorded by eyewitnesses. 

 

We know that the suffering of this world is only for a time but that He and His promises are eternal, so we look forward with anticipation for the day when He will put an end to the suffering of this world by making all things new in a creation that will forever be free from sin and the suffering it brings.