If God is Loving, How Could He Allow So Much Suffering?
There are times when we’re just so lonely and hurting that we can’t help but wonder if there is indeed a God who sees us, a God to whom we can go to when we have no one else, not even our own strength.
But we are disheartened by our miseries, and by all the tragedies we see in the world. In our minds, we fail to see a good God who cares for His children. We ask, “How can there be a God in all these?”
Is There a God?
If I say that there is no God, I’d say there is no God who is responsible for all the unfairness and brutalities in this life, but then I’d also say that there is no hope for all the victims of these brutalities. So I’d say there is a God, and that there is hope, and all is not yet lost.
Some people say that there is so much darkness in this world, and that is why we shouldn’t believe in God anymore. But I say that it is because there is so much darkness that I dare declare there is a God who can all bring us into the light. Jesus suffered and died, but God did not stop there. Jesus came out from death and lived again, and that is God’s plan for everyone.
Why Allow Suffering?
It is not God’s will that we should suffer. But God is able to use all things, even suffering, so as to bring us to a far greater good. He allows pain, which is temporary, to bring us to eternal rewards and lasting happiness, happiness which no one could ever take away from us.
God could have saved the world without suffering, but He chose to save it by undergoing even death itself. He has succeeded not merely in defeating pain but in overcoming it. He has given dignity to those who suffer and He is able to give all those who weep far more happiness than they have lost.
“A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she doesn’t remember the anguish any more, for the joy that a human being is born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” — John 16:21–22, WEB-BE
God’s Mercy is Different
God’s mercy is not like our mercy. To us, mercy is merely the eradication of pain or suffering, even if it means destroying the good together with the bad. To many people, it is better to end life than to allow suffering. To many people, it is better not even to allow life to begin than to allow suffering to happen.
To God however, it isn’t merciful to destroy what is good or beautiful even if it means eradicating something that is bad. God will keep what is good even if it means suffering for it. He came down from heaven to suffer and to die for us so that when He rises again, He could also draw us all into His saving love!
We have all suffered from sin. But God, instead of destroying us all, saved us. Even if all that remains within our souls is a little spark of love, He will not let it be extinguished! He will purify us until He could save all that could still be saved.
God Saves What Is Good
It is never permissible to God to allow good to perish. To destroy what’s good is evil. To save it and to preserve it is ultimate kindness and mercy.
Not that God would allow what’s evil to continue hurting what is good. God allows evil to exist but for a moment as compared to an eternity of bliss and perfection. God would not allow any pain if it could not render a far greater and lasting good.
God’s goodness is a goodness that is victorious because it is a goodness that overcomes evil. It is not a goodness that perishes with evil, but a goodness that can turn even evil into a far greater good!
“During painful times, when you feel a terrible void, think how the capacity of your soul is being enlarged so that it can receive God– becoming as it were, infinite as God is infinite. “— St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
“Earth hath no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.”
— St. Thomas Moore
We Don’t Know The Extent of God’s Mercy
Those who say that God is harsh say so only because they do not know the depths of His love and the infinite riches of His mercy. It is like a person who says that those who urge an alcoholic to undergo rehabilitation are unkind. It is like someone who says that a mother who trains her child to walk is unmerciful, because a child can scratch her knees if she falls along the way.
Must a baby be deprived of birth because she shall certainly cry the moment she is born? Must a person be deprived of emotions because he may get hurt along the way? Certainly not!
God knows how imperfect this world is, how sin has corrupted it. But He would not allow what’s good in this life to be destroyed with the bad. Especially so when the bad we must bear is nothing compared with the far greater good that could be ours. Especially so when the good that could be ours is a good that shall certainly last forever!
God is Love itself, Mercy itself! But as far as the heavens are from the earth, such is how far God’s mercy is from our mercy.
We may think that our comparisons are exaggerated, but it is only so because we do not see things from God’s perspective. We see only from a point in time whereas God sees from eternity. We see only a glimpse of good or evil, but God sees the true repugnance and horror of evil and the true beauty and joy of good.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
– Isaiah 55:9, WEB-BE
“When I think of the happiness that is in store for me, every sorrow, every pain becomes dear to me”. — St. Francis of Assisi
“Time is but a shadow, a dream; already God sees us in Glory and takes joy in our eternal beatitude. How this thought helps my soul. I understand then why he lets us suffer”. — St. Therese of Lisieux
God Did Not Create Suffering
All that God made is good. God did not make suffering and death. Death entered through man’s fall when He sinned.
“…because God didn’t make death;
neither does he delight when the living perish.
For he created all things that they might have being.
The generative powers of the world are wholesome,
and there is no poison of destruction in them,
nor has Hades royal dominion upon earth;
For righteousness is immortal,
but ungodly men by their hands and their words summon death;
deeming him a friend they pined away.”
— Wisdom 1:13–16, WEB-BE
Yet like a tender mother God would not allow any useless suffering to touch us. He would not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. Such is God’s great mercy and tenderness!
“God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” — 1 Corinthians 10:13, WEB-BE
“Do not look forward to what may happen tomorrow; the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it”. — St Francis de Sales
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Yes, these may forget,
yet I will not forget you!”
— Isaiah 49:15, WEBBE
The Parable of the Weeds
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also amongst the wheat, and went away. But when the blade sprang up and produced fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also. The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did these darnel weeds come from?’
“He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’
“But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
— Matthew 13:24–30, WEB-BE
Do you have any questions to God? You may want to take a look at my book “Questions to God” — click here.
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You might be interested in a two-part post I wrote on this subject, using a literary perspective--namely, "Why do authors allow their characters to suffer?" The posts are titled, "Characters who don't know how the story will end," and part 1 is https://kiranblackwell.substack.com/p/characters-who-dont-know-the-end-part-1?r=2pm8fx
Sin.