A BIGGER PICTURE OF LOVE
Many people have a problem with the fact that there is suffering in this lifetime. Many people believe that due to suffering, there is no God because no all-loving God would allow suffering, since suffering doesn’t display love. But let’s slow down—are we seeing the whole picture of love?
If other parents saw us controlling and manipulating our children into obedience and absolute submission, would they think of us as abusive and unloving towards our children? I would think so (and hope so).
A PICTURE OF SUFFERING
If we think that about human parents, how is it any different with God? He can’t force us to love Him and call Himself loving. That’s what free will enables: choice to love Him back. When we choose not to love Him back, we are unloving towards Him; we become abusive, and suffering results in consequence of our selfishness. Let’s not miss something really important here. When we choose sin, we aren’t just being unloving towards the idea of God in our finite minds, we’re treating people with that same selfishness. Jesus said when do this to others, we do it to Him (Matthew 25:40), hence the Golden Rule to do unto others what we would have done to us (Matthew 7:12).
Because God’s love is so deep for humanity, He granted us the free will to be loving, or not to be, according to our will. And humans are deeply unreliable when it comes to choosing good instead of bad. We tend to choose our sin more often than we choose God. And that looks like suffering in the world. That’s why suffering exists.
SUFFERING FOR GENERATIONS AND MILLENNIUMS
God can co-exist in a universe where free will and suffering exist because He granted the world the chance to think for itself, and to make decisions, whether wise or unwise. It isn’t wise to create suffering, but we do, over and over, for generations and millenniums, we have chosen suffering, and continually either blame God for allowing it, or deny His existence because of it. God loses both ways (according to us), and yet, He’s the only reason we have the capacity to choose to think the way we do, otherwise we would be robots without a choice in anything at all.
So, is the argument that God doesn’t exist because suffering exists really a reasonable argument? Or, should He have just made us robots and called off this whole debate from ever happening?
ARE WE SMARTER THAN GOD?
How often do we need to be reminded that free will cannot exist in order for us to love independently? How often do we need to recall why suffering really exists? It’s not because of God. Humanity has a propensity for turning towards pride before humility. We want to believe we’re smarter than God and know better than He does. More often than not, we make ourselves the judge over all of life—judging God in the process. But when was clay ever given the privilege to judge its clay-maker (Isaiah 45:9)?
HINT OF AN UNFATHOMABLE LOVE
We can blame God for every choice we make that ends “badly,” but it doesn’t change the fact that we still made the choice in the end, not Him. We often just can’t handle the truth that we make bad choices. God knew that before He created us, and He still created us. Doesn’t that mean something to us too? Doesn’t that mean there’s hope? If the God of all creation gave us free will, knowing we would betray Him, does that not speak to an unspeakable, unfathomable, transcendent and unconditional love?
A PLAN FROM BEFORE TIME BEGAN
God loves us so much that He not only gave us free will knowing we would betray Him, but He did it with a plan: send His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place of punishment so He could still save those who would choose Him with their free will. Though there were only few who would choose Him (Matthew 7:14), God sent Jesus, who willingly died for us while we were still in our sin (Roman 5:8-10), so we could be with Him for eternity. He created all the cosmos so our one small planet could survive with human life. He granted us free will despite knowing worse things would come first. Then He came and died and rose again for our sake, not His.
MISTAKING GOD FOR SATAN
God doesn’t need us, He just wants us. He loves us deeply and thoroughly, thinking of us in ways we can’t comprehend (Psalms 139:17-22). When we think God doesn’t exist, or that He’s really the devil in His own right, we really mistake God for Satan. Satan tempted the part of humanity that would choose themselves in God’s place, and sin was born. God allowed Satan to tempt Eve, knowing what would happen, but He had a plan. Satan could never win, because he was just part of the plan; God’s redemptive plan.
AN ENDLESS TRAIL OF THANKS
Why blame God after all He’s done for us? No, instead, we praise Him and worship Him for His abundant goodness and graces. We thank Him and live lives in gratitude for His mighty works in our lives. We thank Him for our comforts and our blessings, for family and friends, for providing for our needs and being present in our darkest, most trying moments. We thank Him for allowing adversity in order to mature us in our faith and draw us nearer to Him. We thank Him for the little things as much as the big things. We live in service to others out of love for His Son, Jesus Christ, and the service He did for us on the cross. There is nothing else that we need to do with our lives but be thankful for Jesus in everything we are, say, and do.
A PLAN KNITTED INTO HISTORY
We have a problem with that lifestyle because of suffering, but we caused that. It’s true. God didn’t cause that, He allowed that. But not without a plan. Do we have a plan that intricately deep and knitted into history like God’s? He had a plan before He even began creating things. We’re in the middle of His plan and we’re thinking we could have done better? Misunderstanding His plan doesn’t make ours wiser.
TODAY IS THE DAY OUR LIVES CAN CHANGE
Maybe today we can spend time thinking of all the ways we have been blessed in this life, and give thanks to God for His love for us in Christ. Today can mark the turn of how we live our lives. Today we can repent of our old ways and start living new ways, according to the Bible. Today we can become Christ-followers and know the truth in our very souls, and be born again. Maybe today, we can see suffering with a different pair of eyes, and have a Godly sense of compassion for those who still can’t see it that way, extending grace towards them the way Jesus would. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll see God working where we never imagined He was all along.
May it be so, in the mighty name of Jesus the Lord. Amen.
Photo by Road Trip with Raj on Unsplash
