The Message: Sitting with the questions about why there is suffering
In the past week, I have heard many people wonder how God could allow a terrible tragedy like the death of a 15-year-old boy to happen. There are times when even the most faithful people question what they believe and why the world is the way it is. This is one example of how painful life experiences can affect our faith.
Perhaps you have wondered why a faithful Christian got cancer? Or asked how could God allow a child to be abused? Or wondered why the loving mother of three children was killed by a drunk driver? These questions are all related. They are all wondering about the existence of suffering. This is such a common faith question that it has its own name: theodicy. It is often phrased this way: if God is all-powerful and good, why is there suffering?
People have been asking this question for hundreds of years. There are whole bookshelves full of books addressing this question. In a few paragraphs or even a few chapters, I could not hope to adequately explore and answer this question. What I can do is help you to think about what you believe and perhaps start you on the path to deeper understanding.
When I am faced with challenges to my faith, I have found it valuable to affirm what it is that I do know and believe. I think of these as my rocks. Then I build upon these. The Bible verses from Matthew 7:24-27 teach us that we should be like the wise man who built his house upon a rock. “The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.”
What do you know that you believe? What are your rocks, what is your solid foundation?
For me, these begin with basic beliefs about the nature of God. I believe that God is real, powerful and good. I believe that God is love. Since I know that God is good and all-loving, God must not want us to suffer. If someone says that suffering happens because God is punishing someone or testing someone, I can fall back on what I believe about God. God loves us and does not want us to suffer, so that answer does not work for me.
In the midst of questions that throw us like the stormy seas, we can hold on to what we know for ourselves to be true. And we can cry out to God, asking for answers, even being angry with God. There are plenty of examples in scripture of faithful people doing exactly this.
Why do such terrible things happen? I don’t completely understand, but I am going to hold on to what I do know and be willing to sit with the question.
The Rev. Abigail Ozanne is associate pastor at First United Methodist Church in Watertown.
This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: Understanding why there is pain and suffering can be difficult
