It's one of the most difficult questions we have to ask God . . . “Why do people have to suffer?” For thousands of years, people have tried to answer this question through study, prayer, and mediation, and many have found themselves dumbfounded and frustrated. One reason many people fall upon frustration is because the question, “Why do people have to suffer?” is not the real question we need to answer. The real question is, “Why do I have to suffer?” or “Why do people I love have to suffer?” You see, there’s a philosophical dilemma—can a good God coexist in a world where suffering and evil exist? And there’s a personal and emotional dilemma— doesn’t God love me enough to protect me and those I love from suffering? I suggest that the latter of these two questions is the most difficult.
The great British theologian C.S. Lewis discovered the nature of both questions over the course of his life. He wrote two books on the issue of God and suffering. One was a masterfully articulated book entitled the Problem of Pain, which he wrote early in life. In this book, Lewis wrestled with the intellectual problems surrounding the issue, before brilliantly proving that both God and suffering can indeed coexist. Lewis was a great help to many Christians on the subject.
But years later, Lewis wrote a second book on the subject called A Grief Observed. This book was published under a different name. It was also published in the wake of his wife’s suffering and death, as a result of bone cancer. He no longer drew upon cleverly crafted intellectual arguments. A Grief Observed was more raw and emotional. Lewis found himself wrestling with his faith throughout the book. Early in his book, Lewis wrote: “The conclusion I dread is not, ‘So there’s no God after all,’ but, ‘So this is what God’s really like.’” When faced with suffering, and the incredible horrors one can experience in life, what should we believe about God?
Many of us know about difficulties in life. All of us have been faced with the horrors of disease. Some of us know financial struggle. Some of us know relational destruction. And like C.S. Lewis we have to reconcile these struggles with a living and loving God. So how do we do that? How can a loving God allow for terrible things to happen to good people?
Men and women throughout Biblical history have wrestled with this idea. King David asked God, “How long Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1). Job cried, “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free reign to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul” (Job 10:1). All kinds of people have asked this question of God. “Why? How could you have let this happen? Didn’t you love me enough? Don’t you want what’s best for me? Why!?”
I think there’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news is that I think God seldom provides answers to the “Why?” questions we have in this life. It’s very rare that a person ever learns why he or she experiences the trials that they experience. I think it would be impossible and even offensive for us to even attempt God's rationale for allowing such evils as the Holocaust or other disasters. We don't know the answers to these things. God knows; and one day, we can ask him. But today, we must wait patiently. That’s the bad news.
The good news is, although God rarely provides answers, he does offer us comfort. Consider for a moment that the God of the universe not only understands the suffering that you feel, but he can sympathize with you as one who has endured horrendous sufferings, himself. Jesus had to suffer. He didn’t like it any more than we do. He preferred to avoid it. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus made one last plea that the Father would remove the need for him to suffer and die (Matt. 26:42). As he died on the cross Jesus cried to the Father, “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?” The Son of God knows all about suffering, and the feeling of being abandoned and isolated from God. And this is important for those of us who suffer today. We should draw some comfort from the fact that while we may never get answers to our ‘Why?’ questions, the one who loved us so much that he died for us asked the Father the very same question that you may have asked God, yourself: “Why have you forsaken me?” And that's the reason I believe I can trust the words of Peter when he said, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). We can be confident that God cares, comforts, and sympathizes with our struggle even if the reason for the struggle is not evident to us.
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