[Jimmy the Pro]

I posted this on my blog and thought I would share it here for some fun, good natured debate, so here it is...

Why do we hurt? We can sometimes find a rational explination to this answer. 168 people were killed in the Murrah Federal Building because Timothy McVeigh chose to fill a truch with explosives and set it off in a garage underneath the building. However, this answer often does not suffice. Perhaps the better question is: How can such evil exist? How can such terrible suffering happen? If God is supposed to be an all loving peaceful God, how can He allow such a cruel world to exist? During C.S. Lewis's life as an atheist he pondered this question and would later personally answer the question sufficiently enough for him to convert to Christianity. The following arguements are derived from Lewis's arguements, arguements from other Christian Apologetics, and some of my own thoughts.

It is undoutably true to say that suffering exists in our world. However I find it undeniably false to believe that we can eliminate all suffering from our world. Two reasons help explain why suffering cannot be fully eliminated from the world. First, we do not fully understand the nature of suffering, and thus cannot completely erradicate it. Suppose you have a cut that has become infected. If you do not know the full extent of the infection then simply covering the wound with a bandage will do litte for you. The same is true with suffering. If we do not fully understand the nature of suffering, then trying to eliminate it using the information we have at our disposal now may not fully correct the problem. Second, even if the entire nature of suffering were revealed to us, we could only eliminate suffering in the sense of its application to humans. A lion kills a zebra for food in the jungle. How are we to place ourselfs inside the zebra's mind and know if the zebra is suffering? We will only understand suffering in the human sense which may very well not be the way the zebra experiences suffering. Let us suppose that we guessed right and it is suffering the zebra experiences. How then are we to correct the suffering? If we wish to correct it we would only correct it in the human sense, but our correction may do very little to ease the zebra's suffering and may serve to only exacerbate it. Thus for these two reasons, I find it false to believe all suffering can be eliminated from the world.

But if suffering exists why does God allow it to occur? If God were truely an all powerful being why would He not just eradicate all suffering and keep everything good and nice, and wonderful? I must confess I cannot give you a 100% accurate, all-encompassing answer, however I will share with you two reasons why I believe God does not eliminate the presence of suffering. First, I believe that in the midst of suffering, unintended good arises. Perhaps one of the greatest unintended benefits of suffering is the recognition of life without the full presence of God, for in that recognition, we become truely aware of an alternative, the life full of the joy and wonder of God. There is one thing I wish to make clear about this theory. I am expressing this theory as a benefit from the suffering one recieves through sin. This is the suffering that comes from one's own choice to seperate him or herself from God. The best example of understanding this suffering is when one recieves Confession. It is in this moment that one becomes aware of the suffering one has experienced because he or she has removed him or herself from God. This in turn allows them to understand what life is like when we are once again connected with God, shown to us through Absolution.

A different unintended benifit will accompany suffering in which one has committed no wrong. The book of Job allows us to realize how brutal suffering can be, even if we ourselves have done nothing to deserve it. However, I find that in this time of suffering, we expierence the presence of God more fully than when we are preoocupied with our happiness. After a death of a loved one, the spouse has two paths to take. One which becomes angry at God and completely shuts the spouse away from God, and another path where the spouse falls before God and experiences His presence more fully than ever before. If the spouse should choose to follow the first path, they may find themselves experiencing the suffering that comes when one seperates his or herself with God as I explained earlier. Either way, with an open mind, the benefits of suffering will come in time.

My second reason for believing why God not eradicate suffering is because of Christ. Suppose God chose to eradicate all suffering from the world. The Miracle of Christ's suffering for the sins of humanity would be completely devauled. Why would Christ even suffer if God would simply stop all suffering? It cannot be. God sent Christ into the world to suffer for us so that we may never suffer again. And this is the point I will make to wrap up. God placed Christ on earth to suffer. He did not sent His Son anywhere else but earth. This reveals a key truth about suffering, that it is meant to happen on earth. But then how would suffering cease after Christ had died? Through Heaven. Heaven is the place where suffering will cease and we will be closest to God.

In conclusion, we cannot eradicate all suffering from earth because then there would be no point to Heaven. God would not eradicate all suffering from earth because then the Miracle of Jesus' Passion and death on the Cross would be pointless for us. Thus, while I cannot fully explain suffering to anyone nor can I understand all the premises of suffering, I do believe it is a necessary part of our time on earth with unintended (perhaps intended afterall) benefits that bring us closer to God.