Not Pertaining to Stuffed Salmon

Although I fear that with all of the writing and talking about what occurred last Friday this may just be white noise, I have felt compelled to write about this, even though I was originally planning on writing out the pretty banging recipe I made for stuffed salmon last night for dinner.  Fish can wait.

I would like to address the question of why God would allow what happened on Friday to happen. IF there is a God and IF He is loving, why do so many painful things happen in this world.  Why do innocent ones suffer?  What is the purpose?  Doesn't He care?

First, we need to be clear that MOST suffering is man-made.  Would it be right to assume, then, that God is to blame for these things that were not made by Him?  Our culture has completely cast God out- what right do we have to expect Him to jump in and rescue us from ourselves?  Given that we are a nation and world that has decidedly cut God out of nearly every aspect of our lives, how is it that we have the audacity to demand that He do something when we perpetuate crime against each other (and Him!)?

The fact is that God has given us some very clear instructions that, if we actually took Him up on them, would drastically reduce the suffering, pain, and evil on Earth.  If we actually put Him first, loved our neighbor, tell the truth, honor authority, not covet or steal, remain faithful in our marriages, not commit murder, etc. wouldn't our lives, on the whole, be so much better?  Is God to blame, then, because we choose to spit in the face of those instructions?  We suffer because we ignore those instructions.

Now, lets look at how God created us.  He had the power to "program" us for complete obedience and compliance, but He didn't because He isn't a drill sergeant.  He created a world where we are free to rebel and talk back and strike out and hate and abuse ever gift He has ever given us.  He allows us to do this without jumping in every time without immediately setting us straight-- because that is what love does.  It allows the loved me to disagree and to NOT love in return.  God could have created robots who comply, but He wanted persons who love instead!  He wants us to choose what we are going to love.  Forced love isn't love though.  So we live in a world of people who have chosen not to love God.

But why doesn't He stop it?  What exactly would "stopping it" involve?  It calls upon God to operate the world through constant interference... But would we actually want that?  If an invisible foot kicked us every time we were bout to do something wrong, we would soon stop doing wrong outwardly, but wouldn't we start to resent the Owner of that invisible foot inwardly?  We would be frustrated because we'd believe He was not letting us do what we want.  So God is sort of in a no-win position: we blame Him when he doesn't " do something " but we would resent Him if he were to interfere.

Now suppose He did prevent suffering as you're asking.  Perhaps he would jump in and wipe out the "big" causes of suffering- murderers and terrorism and abusers.  Things would be great for a while, but them the "medium" causes of suffering (perhaps kidnappers and drug dealers) would seem big.  So, He would get rid of those too.  Now we are left with the "littler" causes, like those who cut us off in an intersection or lash out in anger or are bad neighbors, which would become big deals to us.  So God wipes them out too.  Who is left??  Ultimately, the answer isn't that God wipe those people out, but that He uses bad to create good and to change hearts so that they create love, and not sufferings.

God DOES want to stop suffering because it hurts Him to see His children in pain!  But he wants to do so by restructuring the world... Not by wiping people out.  He knows that force doesn't change hearts.  Instead, He moves gently in people's lives who want to help Him recreate a world of love.

A couple of other thoughts.  Sometimes suffering comes into our lives because God wishes to disturb the world around us so as to shock and change our world.  Sometimes He will allow innocent, good people whose death will be so disturbing that its effect sends shock waves into our society to wake us up.  Jesus was the ultimate example of this.  Sometimes He allows these things because God can only teach certain lessons in dark places.  Other times it "forces" us to create solutions and changes that make the world a better place.  As humans, we are solution-oriented.  We want resolution, things to be fixed, effects reversed, etc. But God is evolution-oriented... his chief concern is not that situation is changed but that WE are changed.

I hope this was in some way helpful.  Most of what was here comes from a booklet that a pastor I had years ago wrote in a booklet called "If There's a God, Why Do We Suffer?"  If you are interested in borrowing it or chatting more about this let me know.