| Why Does God Allow Suffering? |
| Written by Matt Hellstrom | |
| Thursday, 14 August 2008 | |
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Probably the biggest question for all people, whether they believe in God or not, is why is there so much suffering in this world? This is a question that probably won't ever be answered until we meet God in person. Many people have opinions, and I'd like to give mine here.
Probably the biggest question for all people, whether they believe in God or not, is why is there so much suffering in this world? This is a question that probably won't ever be answered until we meet God in person. Many people have opinions, and I'd like to give mine here. Why does it seem like God doesn't want good things for me? Why wouldn't he want me to have good health, and to be happy and safe? Why wouldn't he want me to have enough income to pay my bills, help my kids with school, and go on a vacation once in a while? It doesn't seem like these things are that much to ask for. I don't think He's that concerned with these things because there is something that is much more important to Him. I've read many books by Dr. Larry Crabb, best-selling author, psychologist, and counselor, and while they are always excellent and insightful, most of the ones I've read have been kind of hard for me to follow, because they're so intellectual. Some of the books he's written are "The Marriage Builder", "Inside Out", and "Finding God". I read a book by Larry Crabb recently that was quite different from the other's that I've read by him before. This book was called "Shattered Dreams - God's Unexpected Pathway to Joy", and I think it was different because it was something that Dr. Crabb had personally experienced and very intimately touched him. The book was much easier to follow, in my opinion, than the others I had read by him. The premise of this book is that joy and happiness are two distinctly different things. Most of us believe that the most important thing that we can have is happiness. Plenty of money, a loving spouse and obedient kids, good health, a good job, a nice house, etc. The list could be quite long. But my belief is that this isn't necessarily what God wants for us. The Bible says that God wants to give good things to his children, even more than we want to give good things to our children. So God obviously wants us to be happy, right? That could be true, and while He does want those things for us, if they get in the way of having relationship with Him then He'll take the relationship every time. That's where we will find true joy. Sometimes God will let us experience pain and suffering so that we don't become too satisfied with our current lifestyle. He also realizes that we can get very busy trying to maintain that "happy" lifestyle, and that will also limit the joy we will find by having relationship with Him. What happens when we experience this pain? Most of us will do whatever we can to get rid of it. Larry Crabb tells us in "Shattered Dreams" that we need to experience that pain and not try to minimize it or turn away from it if we're going to experience the joy that God desires us to have, and that we really hunger for in our hearts. This is no fun, but the bottom line is that's it's the only path to experiencing true joy. After reading this book, I believe that this is why God allows pain and suffering and why bad things happen to good people. The Article Author: Matt Hellstrom is a husband and father of five wonderful adopted kids. Here are some tips for effective parenting skills that Matt and Julie have learned in the last 15 years. You can also read his opinion about why bad things happen to good people. |
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