Accepting Life's Circumstances From A Christian's Perspective: Why God Allows Pain and Suffering

Too often in life we find ourselves questioning why if there is a loving God, why is there so much suffering. Why do people we love get sick, die, hurt? Why is there suffering on Earth, if God truly cares? Why do people hurt other people? Why are there hungry children? Why are there rape, murder, hate. We will hear man points of view. The non-Christian will say, there is no God, and it's pure foolishness to believe. Some Christians will say, we just need to accept what is given to us, and be joyful. But it does not matter what man says, what matters is what God says, the bible says, and the truth. If we want to discover the truth, we need to search for it, for "if we seek the truth, we will find it."

God Is Just Too Great To Understand

That is what I did, I searched, and I have found many truths. There are so many, that I can only relay a few here. Ones that I feel are most important. My first answer was when Lee Strobel questions Peter John Kreeft PhD, a philosophy professor at Boston College in his book The Case For Faith . Peter Kreeft explained why often we have trouble understanding God, in a way that allowed me to truly understand Him better.

He tells a story about a hunter who found a trapped bear. The only way the hunter could set the bear free was to subject the bear to more pain by first shooting the bear full of drugs to calm the bear, so that the hunter could approach. In the eyes of the bear, the hunter is harming him, in the eyes of the hunter, he is doing a necessary thing in order to free the bear. Once the hunter is able to approach the bear, he has to push the terrified bears paw further into the trap to release it, setting the bear free. In the eyes of the bear, the hunter is doing him more harm. But in the eyes of the hunter, he is acting out of compassion. The bear can't understand the hunter’s intentions because he is too different to understand him. Just as God is not here to hurt us but to help us, but we are too different to understand Him. Could our pain and suffering really help us?

Now i can think of many ways that God has helped me as a result of allowing pain and suffering, but then why are there people who are raped? How could that help any person? So as much as this story brings me comfort, I don’t feel this fully satisfied that I have found answers to my inner most questions.

Pain On Earth, Is Such a Short Time In Eternity

Okay, so God sometimes allows pain to free us of things. To help us learn, and guide us. But we need to realize where the pain is coming from. God is good. There is nothing bad about Him. One thing to understand about this Earth is we are not governed by the balance of good and evil. Good is not the opposite of evil. Evil only exists of the absence of good. Since God is good, evil is merely the absence of God. So why would God allow us on Earth where we have an absence of God. The short answer is we chose to be separate from God.

The moment Eve took a bite of the forbidden fruit, man had decided to separate themselves from God. But only until our death, assuming we choose to be with God in the afterlife. We have the choice to live for eternity, and our life on Earth is a mere speck in eternity. Which means we will only live a short time where we will suffer pain assuming we choose to live with God in our afterlife.

Many people will say how childbirth is the most painful experience your body can endure. Though, I have experienced lots of physical pain, I have not gotten the opportunity to have a child naturally. But I do remember what my mom had to say about her own experience with childbirth. She said, at the time it seems like it’s never going to end, but once you have that beautiful little being in your arms, it's like you forget all about the pain. It's all worth the few, or for some, many hours you are in labor.

Despite that I have never had that experience, I have experienced pain that is extreme. Then just as quick as it arrives, it's gone. I would forget about it, yet remember it all at the same time. I'm assuming that's what it's like minus the gorgeous baby in your arms. Then it got me thinking. In my short life, I have been in and out of hospitals, and in excruciating pain. Once I have gotten over these hurdles, they were a mere blink in my life. Well, I will be living for eternity. Years from now, my life on this earth will be a mere blink as well. The pain, the sorrow, the hurt: I might remember it, maybe not, but even if I do, they will be a mere memory.

Our time on earth is like the birthing process to God, when this life is gone and we are in our true home. The pains not going to matter in the grand scheme of His awesome plan. It will be just a few seconds in our life in eternity. We’ll feel as though it was all worth it, because in the end we'll have a beautiful existence in His presence.

We Reach Out To Him When We Are In Pain

I then began thinking about how God is bigger and different being than us, just like we are different beings than the cub. To God, our time on earth is like a few hours in history. I believe every time we have true pain, He's experiencing it with us. He doesn't stop us, because it's important for us to hurt and explore, get angry and question. If we don't get angry or hurt, we won't explore or question. We would never grow and our time on earth would be purposeless to our birth into our new world.

Also, pain allows us to see how insignificant our life is. This is not intended to make you feel depressed, but to empower God. God wants us to remember that we need Him. We can't make it in this world without His Guidance and His Help. By giving us hardships, it allows us to stop and think about our greatest need and that is for His love, His presence, and His salvation.

One thing we often forget is God never promised us that we would be exempt from pain, just because we believe in Him. In fact, it's the exact opposite. For instance, in John he states, "These things have I spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

Though I may never truly know why God allows such pain, I don't think I need to. I just need to grow and develop. In the end this is only a fragment in eternity with God, just as to a mother the birth of her baby is just a few moments in the life she’ll have with him. Yet, still I hurt, but it’s okay.