Chuck’s Weblog

Not too long ago, in youth group, we were talking about suffering and why asked the big question, “Why would allow something so bad happen to such a good person, and allow something so good to happen to somebody so bad?”

People offered their input and nobody really rested on an answer. I heard several answers that seemed to be partly right, but not fulfilling to the point where I could say that the question would no longer bother me.

One pretty renowned Christian writer, Phillip Nancy, wrote about suffering and he said that we shouldn’t ask that question at all because God is so big and so sovereign that we shouldn’t let that sort of question bother us. To me, this seemed like a pretty sheepish way to just escape the question. Maybe there was more to it that I didn’t understand, but that answer was not very good. It kind of made me angry, because it kind of felt like people were casually throwing away this question. The problem is is that we ask it and we are not content without an answer.

I was reading a book and it stated that the author was too afraid to go to God with this question because if he asked the question, “Why do You allow suffering?”, God would ask the same question back.

We are Christians (A.K.A. the hands and feet of Christ), yet how often do we allow suffering to occur around us? How often do we allow the homeless to be so lonely? Is it just me or is loneliness the root of all suffering? Think about the sick. The elderly are all in their nursing homes suffering from cancer, emphysema,Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and arthritis Or… are they actually suffering from being without their families everyday. The cancer patients are afflicted from leukemia, lung cancer, skin cancer and so many other kinds and they are afraid that they will die leaving their families alone and going off to another world by themselves. And we are so hurt by death because… we are without the ones we love. And we suffer because of it.

This happens to good people and bad people. To add the parts about the good and bad people to me is irrelevant. The truth to me, is that we are all broken, busted up, in-need-of-something -to-lean-on people. Do we so easily forget that good things DO happen to good people and bad things DO happen to bad people? Especially when life is over. Do we think that because we are the redeemed that God should only reserve his love and blessings for us and only bad things can happen to the ones who have yet to find the light? If this is true I don’t want to have any part of it. If I have to give up my blessings to someone who is not yet redeemed so that they will see what God is all about, then I am all for it.

Not all of Christians are doctors, or scientists, or have the ability to build homes, or the money to just give away, but we all have ourselves. We have personalities, faces and love inside of us. We may not all be able to cure cancer or AIDS, or be able to give away money to the homeless, or build homes for them, but we all can be with those who feel so by themselves and show them the light inside of us that they may have forgotten about. I think that this might be part of the cure for suffering.

Dear God,

Let me not forget who You are and who You hung out with when You were on this earth. You walked with the poor, and sinful and the ones who were full of sadness. You spent time with the outcasts and laughed with the lepers. Make me someone who is like that. Shine your light where You want me to go. I am Your hands and feet.