OU blog

Personal Blogs

Jim McCrory

If There's a God, Then Why Poverty, Suffering and Pain?

Visible to anyone in the world

And I heard a great voice, coming from the throne.

A Voice: See, the home of God is with His people.

    He will live among them;

    They will be His people,

    And God Himself will be with them.

     The prophecies are fulfilled:

    He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.[a

    Death will be no more;

    Mourning no more, crying no more, pain no more,

    For the first things have gone away.

Revelation 21:3,4.

The Voice Bible


https://unsplash.com/@birminghammuseumstrust


Some days, I feel like an ant lying in a red wheelbarrow inside a green garden shed, pondering the universe with existential angst. Inside that wheelbarrow, my world is small and confined. Yet, beyond the wheelbarrow, another world exists, and outside the shed, an even greater world awaits. Just as the ant's mind has its limits, so do we as humans, limited in our understanding of the vastness around us.

This brings us to the profound question: Why does God allow suffering? It's an age-old question that challenges our faith and our comprehension. But perhaps a simple story can help us reflect.

One spring, a robin tirelessly built her nest, carefully gathering straw to create a safe home for her future family. Each evening, the farmer would come and knock the nest down. The robin, persistent, would begin again the next day. This continued for several days, until the robin finally sought a new place to build her nest. Shortly after, a storm arrived, felling the very tree where she had been trying to build. The farmer, knowing the tree was diseased and that the storm was coming, was protecting the robin from greater harm by encouraging her to find safer ground.

Sometimes, like the robin, we may not understand why things fall apart. But there is often a purpose we cannot see. Many people turn away from God when faced with suffering, unable to comprehend the reasons behind it. Yet, God's wisdom is greater than ours, and His reasons often lie beyond our immediate grasp.

The Bible speaks to this in Romans 8:18-25, where we are reminded that the suffering of this present time cannot compare to the glory that awaits us. God allows suffering, but He also promises deliverance. He knows the pain we endure, and He calls us to patience and trust in His greater plan. 


Imagine you had the means to create a perfect paradise—an island with beautiful houses, rivers, gardens, and abundant wildlife. What could spoil such a paradise? Human choices. To maintain the peace and harmony of your creation, you would carefully observe those who inhabit it, seeking those who appreciate your gift and respect the laws necessary for its preservation.


In Genesis, God gave humanity free will—a gift that carries immense responsibility. We have the freedom to choose good or evil, but our choices affect not just ourselves, but others as well. In His wisdom, God observes how we use this freedom, shaping a future where those who live with love, loyalty, and respect for His creation will inherit His paradise.


“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).


Suffering, then, is not meaningless. It reveals the true nature of our hearts, testing our character in ways that comfort never could. In Luke 23:39-44, one of the criminals crucified alongside Jesus mocked Him, while the other recognized His innocence and asked to be remembered in His kingdom. Jesus, seeing the heart of the second man, assured him of his place in paradise. 


God is preparing those with loyal hearts to inherit the paradise He has promised. Though we may not always understand why suffering is permitted, we are called to trust in the One who sees the bigger picture, guiding us toward a future free of pain and filled with glory.


Revelation Scripture taken from The Voice™. Copyright © 2012 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Jim McCrory

The Guest I Would Desire To Have At My Table

Visible to anyone in the world


I am a child of this age, the child of disbelief and doubt, until now and even to the grave. What a terrible torment this thirst for faith has taught me, and now cost me, which is stronger in my soul, the more in me the arguments to the contrary.’ ----  Dostoevsky 



Image courtesy of https://unsplash.com/@vivom


A profile of Dostoevsky reveals a man who experienced considerable injustices in life.  Diagnosed with Grand Mal Epilepsy as a teenager, a last-minute reprieve from a firing squad, exiled to Siberia, death of his second wife whom he loved, death of his child from an epileptic convulsion and the distress of raising a troubled teenager.

Scholars recognise the Karamazov book mirrors Dostoevsky’s life. That being the case, it was the existential angst that troubled Dostoevsky’s later years. Mourning the repeated inhumanity of Russian society, he inevitably turned to thoughts of Divine justice. A question that is as relevant today as it was two centuries ago.

When he was exiled to Siberia, an old widow supplied him and his fellow prisoners some hospitality. She signalled out Dostoevsky and gifted him with a Bible. He later wrote:

I am a child of this age, the child of disbelief and doubt, until now and even to the grave. What a terrible torment this thirst for faith has taught me, and now cost me, which is stronger in my soul, the more in me the arguments to the contrary.’ Letters XXV111/1, P.176, 

The Bible, she gave him, was still in his possession at his death.

Fascinating that The Brothers Karamazov was, despite careful reading, I never found that attributed phrase where Alisha said to his atheist brother, ‘If there is no God, then all things are permissible.’ The problem lies in the translation it seems. Nonetheless, the aphorism stands as a valuable argument for objective morality and the personal God. Why does something exist rather than not exist? Why are humans who are apparent chemicals that have come about in the big cosmic game of chance directed by this virtue called justice? Are all the evil and good deeds carried out by humans all for nothing? Are the acts carried out by Pol Pot, Putin, Stalin, and others, permissible? Will there not be a great judgement? If we are alone in this dark universe, then anything and everything goes. But the lived experience reveals otherwise.

We are governed by an invisible force that bends towards justice. We feel it in our lives daily. I say bends because we are free moral agents on a level playing field where goodness and wickedness meet. There’s too much wickedness for God to exist some might say. But isn’t the reverse also true? There’s considerable goodness. Why would any virtue exist in a universe that just happened? I see medical staff going to war-torn countries and risking life to provide care for those who are not their kin. What about Ignacio Echeverría, the 39-year-old Spanish lawyer who confronted the terrorists in the 2017 London Bridge attacks and sacrificing his athletic future and life in the process? There’s the stranger who sacrifices a kidney for the person he will never meet. The millions of charitable givers who make life more endurable for orphans in Brazil, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and other parts of the world. These acts defy the theory of reciprocity allogrooming. They describe altruism in the true sense. Just pure, unconditional love. And history is filled with such.

Back in 1979, just like Dostoevsky, I had many vexing theological questions I wrestled with. One Sunday morning, a man who looked dressed for a funeral, knocked my door and asked, ‘If you had an audience with God, what would you ask him?’

Between a blink and a wink, I asked, ‘Why so much injustice in the world?’ I was expecting this tall thin man with heavy black glasses to ferret away in view of my difficult question. But no. He read me the following:

‘We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time … For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay…’

Why would God create a beautiful planet then subject it to futility? I have thought of this most of my adult life. Here’s what I think. Are we not free moral agents? Then it’s back to that level playing field scenario. How will humans conduct themselves in the absence of a creator? The presence of injustice is a factor caused by man. This gives the illusion that there’s no God. But are humans not like the child who behaves in the parents’ presence and disobeys in their absence? Is there a place for the child who always conducts himself unselfishly, metaphorically speaking? I say that God has us in this seemingly futile situation to test our worth. Not knowing if he is there for sure, reinforces our true selves. What we value most.

C.S. Lewis wrote, ‘If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world will satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we are made for another world.’

All the books I read as a child was about a craving. The hero’s striving for something. I could not put my finger on it at the time. But it was the human impulse for justice. Something books will never satisfy. I found that hope in the further words the man read to me that day as he stood at my door:

‘He (God) will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, the old order of things has passed away.’

 Revelation 21: 4.

I shed many a tear as a child. I shed some now. But to embrace a hope where a universe will prevail and justice being at its centrepiece, I wipe my eyes. The dark and stormy night looks brighter in the end.

 


Permalink
Share post

This blog might contain posts that are only visible to logged-in users, or where only logged-in users can comment. If you have an account on the system, please log in for full access.

Total visits to this blog: 129566