Do you know why most
people say they don’t believe in God? They
can’t understand why God would allow suffering in this world. It seems like a
valid complaint. After all, if I were God I wouldn’t let children starve to
death or tornadoes wipe out towns. I wouldn’t let kids get cancer (adults,
either) or stand by while teens get killed in car accidents on prom night. And
I would certainly have stopped the horrors of 9/11, Auschwitz and Rwanda.
If you think God doesn’t care,
or isn’t powerful enough to stop suffering in this world, I suggest that a
better question is, “What is God’s alternative?” Kids don’t go hungry because there isn’t
enough food in the world. Tornadoes happen when two storms that bring much needed
rain on the one hand collide and form funnel clouds on the other. The same
cells that give us blue eyes, blood types and protect us from disease also mutate
and become cancerous. We freely choose to risk our lives every time we get
behind the wheel and so do our youth. And 9/11, Auschwitz and Rwanda are the other
side of the coin of freewill that allows human beings to choose either great
good for the world or great evil. Is God’s
appropriate role to continuously monitor and suspend the laws of nature for all
6 billion of us human beings, or is God’s role something else?
Yes , bad things do happen
to good people. But the good news is we don’t have to walk through the valley of
the shadow of death alone. God promises not to prevent or take our pain away,
but to walk together with us through it. To give us strength, courage and most
of all hope no matter hard it may be.
So when people say to me
they can’t believe in God because of suffering, I tell them it is when I suffer
I believe in God the most. And God has never let me down. See you in church.
