Suffering
Why God Allows It
Anticipation
Atheists tend to regard Christianity (if not all faiths) as a
self-reinforcing delusion. This means our faith is based upon scripture
and claims which can neither be proved nor disproved. As a living,
breathing, human it is perfectly reasonable to consider as a possibility
that all of this stuff, all of our Christianity and faith, is just a
buy-in to mass delusion. Many of us refuse to go there and rebuke doubt
as evil. But so is blind faith. The bible teaches us to not put God to
the test, but we can and maybe should put our faith to the test. The
more I questioned my faith, the more answers I sought, the stronger my
faith became. My process of doubting God became the bedrock of my
salvation. The process also allowed lots of useless tribalism—Stuff We
Done Heard Someplace—to drop off in favor of sound doctrine, which can
only come from a serious investigation of the scriptures. Yu can’t
un-learn stupid stuff by just sitting there, listening to your pastor’s
weekly performance. You’ve got to jump in, confess your doubts to God,
ask Him to reveal Himself to you. You have to be willing to let go of
dumb stuff you’ve believed to be sound doctrine, nonsense you’ve clung
to your whole life. You have to be willing to change, to start over if
necessary. Somewhere along that process, you’ll lose the fairy tale
mythology of being “saved” meaning you’ll have no problems, no worries.
That’s the doctrine of nitwits. Rather, the bible cautions us to count
the cost [SCR], to soberly evaluate what being a child of God means. Not
just in stuff you have to give up, which is usually all we think about,
but the cost of being legit and, finally, useful to God. What are you
willing to sacrifice? Are you preparing for suffering, whose purpose is
often to refine you through the fire of trials. Will you remain
faithful, or will you fold like Job’s wife, a nasty bitty who simply
barked, “Curse God and die!”
I am now in my 50’s. Most people in their 50’s will tell you their focus
is on their 60’s, on the next elevation of life and what that entails.
If you had a 50-year old car sitting in your driveway, you can imagine
the amount of work required to keep that car running. Now imagine you
have 50-year old kidneys. 50-year old lungs. A 50-year old heart. Health
care, something I never gave a whole lot of thought to, moves right to
the top of your list of concerns. At age 30, there was always a job.
People discriminate against 50-somethings and our job applications go to
the bottom of the pile. Many of us have relied on pension funds which
have gone bankrupt. Many 50-somethings end up being fired for petty
reasons just so companies don’t have to pay out their benefits. During
your 50’s you are sharply concerned with your 60’s and how you’re going
to eat, where you’re going to live and how you’ll manage to have health
care.
All of that, every bit of that, is about managing suffering. Suffering
comes with aging. They are a package deal. If you’re very blessed, maybe
you’ve done everything right. Maybe you have your Social Security in
order and some kind of pension or 401k or what have you. Maybe you are
retired military and have medical benefits through that and your home is
paid off so you have a place to live. It’s a complex formula. And, even
those who’ve done everything absolutely right cannot dodge some form of
suffering, even if it’s only a toothache. If you’ve ever had a
toothache, an up-all-night-pacing-the-floor-praying-for-death toothache,
you have some small preview of what real suffering is about. I have sat
with family and loved ones for whom that kind of suffering is maybe
one-tenth the pain they lived with as their lives drew to a close. These
were not “bad” people. They were not being punished. God had not
abandoned them. But, despite the movie playing in our heads since
childhood, God never promised us safe passage from cradle to grave. His
own Son didn’t have that privilege, why do we expect it?
The Journey: Longevity is both a blessing and a gamble.
Blessed
When I hear of a Christian dying suddenly in their sleep or perhaps being
run over by a bread truck, my first thought is about how unimaginably
blessed they are. To have death come in a swift and sudden way is more of
a blessing than many of us realize. To not meet death after months or
years of agonizing pain, homelessness, imprisonment or loneliness is a
gift from God. That’s certainly my prayer; not a prayer for death but a
prayer for no suffering. I realize that prayer is unreasonable: we all
have suffering coming, but few of us acknowledge that fact rationally or
prepare for it in any way. We just assume life will cruise on as it
always has, that we’ll be 32 forever. We can’t imagine being one of
those smelly bums shuffling down the street or one of those sad people
holding up handmade signs at the entrances to Walmart. It is
inconceivable that we ourselves may end up in a cancer ward or lose our
well-planned Golden Years nest egg to sickness, disease or economic
collapse.
That, by the way, is the untold story of the Obama Administration. Had
he trumpeted the fact the nation was actually teetering on the brink of
a Second Great Depression due mainly to President George W. Bush’s
economic policies, the panic would have certainly brought that event
into being. The president, therefore, really couldn’t ever say that out
loud, but that’s where we were. Your social security, your pension or
401k—no matter who you are—would surely have been wiped out had the
president not taken decisive action to forestall such a cataclysmic
economic event. Most of us don’t know this or just don’t think of it:
the sheer scale of unimaginable suffering that would have occurred if
not for this president’s actions. Many of the older conservatives booing
and hissing and painting Hitler mustaches on the president’s picture
would be living on the street were it not for him.
We put our faith in our savings account. In the value of our home. How
many millions of people lost or nearly lost their homes during the
recession? How many people lost their retirement benefits? Why on earth
do we believe this couldn’t happen to us? Why do we blame God when such
disasters occur? After all, our faith is not in God but in our pension
fund—which went belly-up with the snap of a finger. Then we turn around
and curse God and refuse to believe in Him, which is silly: we obviously
didn’t believe in Him before we lost everything, Before the cancer.
Before she walked out on us. For, if we truly believed, we wouldn’t be
shaking our fist at Him now.
Rather than ask God why He allows suffering in our lives, I’m more
curious about why we believe we’ll be exempt from it. Why does suffering
always take us by surprise? Any rational mind must surely acknowledge
the possibility that we’ll endure unimaginable suffering at some point
if not several points in our lives. We should not only accept suffering as
inevitable but anticipate suffering’s arrival by thanking God, with much
joy, for each and every day He grants us to live without it. A day
without emotional, mental or physical pain is like a lottery win. Few of
us appreciate this fact until those days are behind us; until we are
suffering and pray for even one of those suffering-free days back.
Why not enjoy them now?
I imagine suffering to be an integral part of the human experience. It
is simply not rational to expect to sail from cradle to grave without
experiencing pain, loss, heartbreak, or hardship of any kind. And yet,
this is precisely what we do: fail to strap in, store up, brace
ourselves or otherwise fortify our lives in any way.
The first discussion of any romantic relationship should be about how
the relationship will end. Don’t wait until you’re in trouble; be man
enough, woman enough, to have the tough conversation while the pixie
dust is still in the air. Set terms and conditions and later have the
will to stick to them: we got into this thing as friends, we will love
one another enough to make sure it ends that way. But, we never do that.
We get into one relationship after another thinking this is it; this
will never end. How many times have we sung that song? Together forever.
It’s nonsense. It’s incredibly immature. Relationships end, either in
the courtroom or the graveyard, and most of us punk out when the going
gets rough. So have the talk. Having the talk is real love. Stumbling
blindly forward is what kids do.
Why don’t we have a living will? Why wait until you’re laid out
somewhere, unable to speak for yourself, and your Aunt Cookie or some
other well-meaning but nonetheless clueless individual is calling the
shots?
Just A Matter of Time: Sooner or later, we're all on our way to Memorial.
Eternal Beings, A Human Experience
The ability to experience joy, happiness, euphoria, exhilaration is a
divine gift. Now, could God give us this gift and, at the same time,
block us from experiencing pain, disappointment, apprehension,
disillusion and sadness? Heck, He’s God. He can do what He wants.
I’m just making this up; I have no scriptural basis for my own opinion,
here: our purpose is to become more like Him. In order to achieve that,
we have to become more God-like. Not automatons like the angels, who can
appear human but lack most of the qualities of a human existence. All of
us, Christian or not, have been endowed with the divine attributes of
our maker, including a free will to reject Him or deny He exists. We can
taste excellent food, breathe crisp mountain air, fall in love. Without
the capacity to experience the negatives in life, how would we even know
the food was good. Good as compared to what? How do we fall in love? How
do we truly experience joy without sorrow? How do we become more
God-like if God puts His thumb on the scale for us and bars all the
negative things?
The harsher sufferings most of us will encounter as we move later into
our life’s journey are, frankly, one of those inexplicable mysteries of
God. Men and women who acknowledge Him, who love Him, who have
faithfully served him, now dead broke, homeless, diseased, suffering
great pain and great emotional distress, abandoned by their families and
friends. I don’t know how to explain that.
I can tell you virtually all of the men who gave up everything to follow
Christ ultimately suffered torture and
died grisly deaths. Most
of us miss that reality when we decide we’ve been “called to preach.” A
large percentage of those acknowledging their calling are just wannabes
enamored of the pastor and feeling they can do that too; grab the mic
and pace around yelling and performing. The tiniest fraction of
“associate” ministers I’ve ever met in my life actually do any
ministering; actually visit widows and befriend orphans and build some
Christian work with their own hands. The overwhelming majority of
“associate” ministers I’ve ever met are absolutely useless. They sit
around and wait for their chance to preach; that’s it.
Real Christianity costs. It costs your time, your talent, your treasure,
your patience. It costs your reputation because stepping out makes you a
target. “Associate” ministers who start their own work usually receive
little or no support from the church, whose calendars and budgets are
jammed with useless, self-congratulatory pageants.
Celebrate Joy: Give thanks and praise to God for every day without suffering.
Reality Check
Stepping out into real ministry, you’ll find little support, mostly
ridicule, and may ultimately be rewarded by God seeming to abandon you
as the creditors close in or disease claims your body.
Satan’s twisted warping of the nature of Christianity provides us with
this Pollyannaish storybook nonsense about goodness and light along with
the expectation that accepting Christ, living for Christ, means we won’t
suffer. There is a positive reinforcement acclamation that frees us from
any responsibility as this lie of The Benign Christianity suggests that
once we commit to Christ, we will no longer struggle or suffer in any
way. This is a fool’s doctrine, one most of us believe because we don’t
actually read the bible. It’s more of this Stuff We Done Heard
Someplace, and we revolt and curse God when this nonsense is proved
untrue. We curse God for our suffering, we curse God for our loss. How
could a loving God allow this? Idiot: read your bible. God never
promised us an easy life. He promised us the power to overcome life’s
challenges through His Holy Spirit.
Don’t just read the beginning of the story, look and see how those
stories end. Unless you are blessed enough to get taken out by a sudden
and painless brain aneurism, dude, suffering is on the way. If you’re
not preparing for it, emotionally, spiritually, financially, you’re just
an idiot. If you’re not celebrating God now for each day you live
without suffering, don’t curse Him when the suffering comes because,
check me: it’s coming. The sad truth of the matter is, in your hour of
need and through yuor trial, it may all boil down to just you and God: a
faith battered and shaken that remains steadfast even as those around us
lose theirs.
Christopher J. Priest
10 June 2014
editor@praisenet.org
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