The Problem of The Problem of Pain

Pain and suffering are perhaps the two most problematic issues for people throughout their faith journey. In fact the often controversial, evangelical news anchor Pat Robinson made headlines for a remark he made about the issue. As human beings we loathe discomfort. We didn’t like walking long distances so we learned to ride horses. Horses took to long to reach a destination so we invented the train and the automobile. Trains and automobiles took to long so we invented airplanes and helicopters.  Much of the technological advancement during our time has been because we have attempted to overcome our discomforts through innovation or the manipulation of our environment. Is it any wonder that the most difficult issues for people to reconcile with the Christian faith or any type of faith at all is that of pain and suffering?

I find it odd that human beings have a tendency to give moral identities to things that are amoral. Calling pleasure good and pain evil would be like assigning these identities to money. Money is neither good nor evil but can be used in either context. In the same way pleasure and pain are neither good nor evil but can be used in either context. Pleasure as it occurs in illicit scenarios would be evil, just like the pain or suffering you experience when exercising or getting a shot of medication would be good. If that we can posit that pleasure and pain are amoral then we can no longer assign the blame of evil to God or to say that because evil exists God therefore cannot exist. A problem when people do this is that when they talk about pain and suffering they are talking about a person. They are assuming that the human life has some sort of value and worth. On the atheistic worldview where man is nothing more than time + matter + chance where then does the worth of human life come from? I would posit that the only way human life can have any worth at all is if it is given to us by a transcendent creator. 

Isn't it ironic how people want to be able to be left to their own devices up until something tragic happens? At the point of crisis people tend to feel that they need some sort of intervention, be it divine or another source. A common question that is often heard is: “Why did God allow this to happen, if he loved me wouldn’t he not allow this to happen?” I believe that this is an unbiblical view of God’s character and nature. I can hardly recall any time in scripture in which God himself directly intervened in the life of man. More often than not God uses other means in which rectify a situation or scenario.

In the book of Genesis we encounter the characters of Adam and Eve, everyone knows the story so I will not go through all of the details but ultimately Adam and Eve fell into sin. This fall into sin resulted in the entire world being engulfed by it. This is what we call man’s “falleness” or the fallen nature of man. The entirety of scripture is an overarching story of God’s attempt to reconcile man back to himself after we separated ourselves through sin.  In this story of reconciliation there is one thing that becomes immediately clear, one of the only things that we as human beings are guaranteed to encounter during our lives is pain and suffering. Even Jesus himself was not exempt from the pain and suffering of our sinful world when he died on the cross.

Now many people will disagree with what I have to say next because it delves into a decades long debate but I am okay with that. The question that arises from the previous paragraph is why then does God allow pain and suffering to exist at all, and the answer to that is because that is what we chose. One thing that has become apparent in my life is that God is more than willing to allow us to do, as we will. He has given us a freewill, and he allows us to use it. In the very beginning we chose a path of separation from God, and left to our own devices we would choose it time and time again because sin has permeated the very fabric of our being. Human beings have an innate desire to do good, but we have a tragic flaw of consistently doing the wrong thing. So what then is God to do in order to reconcile this dichotomy in human nature? He sends his son to the earth in the form of a man, fully human and fully man, to suffer and to die on the cross. So that anyone who believes in him will inherit eternal life. Not by anything we can, have, or will do, but grace through faith in Jesus Christ. A common question that arises from this is why would God give us free will if he knows that some of us will choose the opposite of a life with him and the answer is because when we choose him it is an act of sacrifice and an act of true love. Take a marriage relationship for example. When you meet the person who you choose to spend the rest of your life with you are basically saying I choose you over every other man or woman in the world. You aren’t forced into the relationship; you are allowed to choose whom you spend your life with and that means more than loving someone who has no choice but to love you back. It becomes obligation rather than a sacrificial type of love.

Now you may be saying to yourself that this is all fine and dandy but it doesn’t change the feelings that come along with experiencing suffering and pain. The loss of a child or a loved one before they have had time to live a full life is perhaps the best example of the type of pain and suffering that causes people the most grief. These things are terrible, and it is a terrible thing that one should have to go through this. But to assign the blame of this on God is simply making him a scapegoat. Now don’t be mistaken I am not saying that because a person get’s sick or has a disease or what ever is a direct result of their sin. I am saying that it is a direct result of being born into a fallen world. I believe this is why in the New Testament one of the most common admonishments we find is that we should find joy in the suffering. Never do you see Jesus say if you follow me life will be easy and you will never experience pain again. In fact something that he does assure those who chose to follow him is that if anything,

life will get more difficult. But one thing that is for certain when the Christian encounters trials, suffering, and pain we can know that no matter what happens God is still God, and he can give us the strength to find joy even in the darkest places.