PAIN AND SUFFERING

No one escapes this life without his or her fair share of pain and suffering. Sometimes it honestly seems that the suffering we experience, the physical and emotional pain we have to endure, is patently unfair. Sometimes it seems that there are those who seem to receive an inordinate amount of pain while others seem to not get what we think they deserve. Even so, the bottom line, again, is that we all suffer, that we all are in some kind of pain during our lives here in this life.

But why do we have to suffer? Why does anyone have to be in pain? God could surely prevent pain and suffering being inflicted upon his beloved children, for that it what we are: God’s beloved; but God does not. God allows us to suffer because of our own sins and God allows pain to be inflicted upon us, justly or unjustly, because of the actions of others. Yet the question still remains: Why?

C. S. Lewis once observed that pain is God’s microphone to a deaf world. Yes, when we are in pain, we do try to get God’s attention. We may even yell and scream at God asking “Why me? What did I do to deserve this much pain, this agony? Yes, I am not perfect. And, yes, I am a sinner; but are my sins so great that I have to suffer in this way?” If I may be so bold, I think we have all uttered those very words once or twice in our lives. No one of us, again, is exempt from what we believe is unwarranted suffering. No one!

Yet, contrary to what Lewis opines, God already has our attention. We are already believers. We know God loves us and cares for us and protects us. Our problem when pain and suffering arise in our lives is trying to understand not why we are in pain but why we are in so much pain. Even when the pain is deserved because of our sinful and foolish actions, even when it happens to us because of the sins of others, we still ask God why it is so severe when it is, at least in our opinion, so undeserved. If there is a world out there that is deaf to God, we are not part of that world.

And, if I may be bold again, those who are indeed deaf to God, when they encounter unjust pain and suffering in their own lives or in the lives of others, especially in the lives of those who profess to be believers, that pain and suffering only emboldens them to further deny God’s existence with the claim that a loving God would never allow such pain to be inflicted on those who believe in him.

So, then, what is Lewis’ point? I think it is simply a reminder, to those of us who are not deaf to God’s word, that there are times in our lives when everything is going well, when we somehow forget about God and how important our relationship with God really is. Sometimes when we are in that mode, the only thing that gets our attention is pain and suffering. We will never understand why we have to endure seemingly unjust pain and suffering, not in this life anyway. But what we do know and do understand is that when any pain comes our way, somehow in some way God will help us get through it. Those who are deaf to God can’t hear God’s comforting words. It’s their loss.