Pain & Suffering

One of the biggest issues I had with religion and god(s) was with pain & suffering. If a god or gods exist and they are good or inclined toward good and are powerful, why do they allow pain & suffering?

In my home, I grew up in a predominately Christian influenced bubble. My parents didn’t take me to church, so religion wasn’t forced upon me. But I did go to a daycare at a church, so I did learn about the stories in the Bible and that God was good and all powerful. So, what is God doing? Why not just get rid of evil?

Freedom. Free will. Choice.

God loves his creation, specifically humans, so much he gave us free will. Without free will, we would be simply machines. We’d be similar to the very thing you are reading this on. Programmed with responses waiting on input. Without free will, we can’t choose another path. We can only follow the path set before us.

Fortunately, God loves us and gave us choice. This allowed Adam and Eve to choose their own path, not the original path God set before them. This choice we know as the eating of the fruit in the garden of Eden. The disobedience of the one rule they were given.

Rebellion. Autonomy. Freedom.

God, as many parents do, set down rules for His children to live by. The first humans, and every human since, at some point choose autonomy. We all at some point believe we can make our own decisions and don’t need the rules placed on us. Haven’t we all broken a rule our parents made at some point? Curfew? No bad words? No talking back?

We all rebel. Not necessarily intentionally as if overthrowing a government, but we push the boundaries and we believe we know what is best for ourselves. It can’t be that bad if I stay out past my curfew, right? Why can’t I date that person?

So, what does freedom and free will have to do with pain and suffering? Because of our choice to not obey, we are separated from God. Because we think we can do things better for ourselves, we do things without understanding the full consequences of our actions. We can’t with our limited understanding. Adam & Eve likely didn’t understand the ramifications of simply eating the fruit, just like we don’t fully understand the ramifications of our actions or words.

Thus, we end up hurting one another. Not necessarily intentionally. But when your freedom meets up against my freedom, there is inevitably confrontation. Our desire for freedom and autonomy is driven by selfishness. We can overcome this and be “good” humans, but overall, we are broken. We’ll talk more about brokenness in another post.

So, we are the root cause of the pain and suffering in this world. Because we think we know better. You may be still asking, “what about God? Isn’t He all powerful? Why not make pain and suffering disappear?” He can and He will, but not exactly when or how we may think of it. “Why not now?” For two reasons.

One, punishment. After Adam & Eve didn’t follow the rules, just as many parents would, God gave them a punishment. Some parents may think punishment is a bad thing, but I would argue it is healthy. Historically, giving a kid anything they want and never saying no tends to create a being who is more selfish and doesn’t understand no. So, punishment is to be corrective.

Two, free will! To remove pain & suffering, would remove choice. While pain & suffering aren’t likely to be a choice on a given path, the result could lead to pain & suffering. Removing the path to pain & suffering would remove choice. We are back to be a machine. Because God loves us, He gives us choice. The choice? To choose Him or ourselves.

Luckily, God will erase pain & suffering for those who choose Him. The choice of choosing God removes pain & suffering. It’s not immediate, but that is because this life is broken. God will create a new world where those who chose Him will be reborn and be given new bodies and new names and have everlasting life. A life free of pain & suffering.

Unfortunately, those who choose themselves, will attempt to create a life avoiding pain & suffering. They may succeed in this life, but likely after death, they will find an eternity of suffering. This isn’t because God is mean or vindictive and punishing those who didn’t choose him. This eternal suffering is true suffering.

What is true suffering? True suffering likely comes from our created purpose being unfulfilled. Our created purpose comes from the Creator, God. God created us with a purpose. Remember Adam & Eve? God had a different plan in mind when they disobeyed. That’s not to say God didn’t know that was coming (more on that in a future post) but they took the other path, the path that led them away from their creator.

What is our purpose then? To be in communion with God. If God is a supreme, all-knowing, all-powerful being, then He doesn’t need us. But He still created us and asked us to join Him. To walk with Him in his created world. To have a relationship with Him. It seems to me to be often forgotten, that Jesus calls us friends. It’s only mentioned once in the Bible, but he calls us into friendship.

I’m blessed to have pretty cool parents. They weren’t overly in my business or did things I disagreed with causing some sort of rift. I have no complaints, so I’m lucky. And now that I am older, my parents have become also like friends. We’ve shared stories I would have never imagined sharing with my parents. But they are just people too.

I’m also blessed to have a wife. Especially one that is cool. I thought love was supposed to be like the fairy tales, but instead I found the best love, the best partner, is a best friend. So, my best relationships are friendships. I believe this is our intended purpose from our Creator, meaning life without Him is true suffering.

Think of it like a computer or car that isn’t used. Its purpose was to be used. If it is not used, it isn’t fulfilling its purpose. Imagine now it had feelings. It would likely feel an emptiness. Imagine it had autonomy and could do things. It might go and explore the world or start a family. It may try to create a purpose for itself. But in the end, would it ever be truly fulfilled if its created purpose was unfulfilled? To me, that emptiness is suffering. Never being fulfilled. Never being fully satisfied.

To summarize, suffering exists due to choice. In this world, suffering is caused by humans, allowed by God for His glory and as a catalyst to make us better people. True suffering is caused by separation from our created purpose of a relationship with our Creator. God will build a new world for those who choose Him that allows us to fulfill our created purpose and end suffering. And to those who choose a different path, you will not be able to fulfill your created purpose. This isn’t a separation God created as divine punishment for making the “wrong” choice. It is simply the result of choice you were given.