Where has God been the last two years?
Millions of people around the world have died from COVID
Millions more have suffered from the virus
Millions have lost their jobs
Mental and emotional distress has increased exponentially
George Floyd was murdered by a police officer on his neck
American citizens tried to overthrow the US Government
Afghanistan has fallen once again into the hands of the Taliban
And that doesn’t include ongoing poverty, homelessness, people killed by drunk drivers, and the growing chasm between the have and the have nots!
If God is a loving God, why does God allow all of this suffering? Why doesn’t God put an end to it? Why doesn’t God intervene? Where has God been?
That question, along with the Hell question, presents one of the biggest stumbling blocks to faith and has done so since humans could ask questions.
In times of chaos, upheaval, and suffering we all look for something to make sense of it all—to bring meaning to the meaninglessness of it all.
And for people of faith the search for meaning begins with God (and that holds true even for those who don’t consider themselves religious).
There are generally two go-to responses to the question of suffering:
The first is the-God-is-control answer. One of the common encouragements used to bring some hope in the midst of hardship is: Don’t worry. God’s got this. God is still in control!
For example, consider this word of hope from social media:
Sorry to break up the big panic, but the coronavirus will not take anyone outta this world unless that’s the good Lord’s plan. And you’re not gonna change that no matter what you do or what you buy.
In other words, none of this is beyond God’s control.
But… if this is what God-is-in-control looks like, what does it looks like when God isn’t in control?!
This view of a God who has everything under control pictures God as a master puppeteer. Think Geppetto with Pinocchio, controlling and manipulating every move at every moment of every day; pulling the strings of human interactions, circumstances, and world events.
But when we dig down into that view of God, we find that it makes God responsible for all of the death, violence, chaos, and loss that we all experience in life. It makes God responsible for pandemics and cancer and divorce and suicide and car accidents and poverty and war and the Holocaust, etc.
If that’s what God is like, no wonder people want nothing to do with God!
The second response is the same as the first, but rather than fixing suffering onto God to bring hope, suffering is blamed on God in order to dismiss God altogether. How can a loving God allow suffering?
The argument goes something like this:
God is all-powerful so can prevent suffering.
God is good and loving so you would imagine God would want to eliminate suffering.
But suffering exists so God is not all powerful or good or loving.
And with no seemingly viable answer those questions, many people either abandon the faith or give up on the possibility of a God before even getting started with the questions.
But when we dig deeper into this second view, we also have some unresolved issues.
Let’s take God out of the equation for a moment. Many people who simply can’t believe in God because they can’t believe in a loving God who allows suffering, still have the problem of suffering.
Suffering doesn’t go away if we give up on God.
So how then do we explain it or come to terms with it?
Here’s atheist Richard Dawkins on suffering and evil:
The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation, thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference. (River out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life)
If Dawkins is right, if life is chance or pitiless indifference, where does that leave us?
But what if it’s true that God’s love and suffering are related, but not in the way we’re often taught?
What if a loving God speaks to suffering, to this seemingly pitiless indifference, not in the way we think God should, but in the way we need God to? Does suffering automatically prove that God isn’t loving or powerful? That God doesn’t exist?
More to come next time.
You can connect with me at Tim@TimWrightMinistries.org