Episode 5 - Thoughts on the Problem of Evil and Suffering Why does God allow so much suffering? (Note: In times of trouble we don’t need explanations as much as we need the love of others.)
12 Ideas:

1: We’re not the first to ask this question. Earlier believers found a way through this problem in far more brutal times. We can too. Not fatal to faith.

1: This question is problematic for everyone. Neither believers nor atheists can eliminate the problem by denying the existence of God.

3: This question has no complete answer. “An inscrutable residue” of loose ends.

4: God is not happy with the present condition of the world either. Yancey, “The Bible communicates no message with more certainty than God’s displeasure with the state of humanity.” No one wants evil to end, more than God Himself.

5: God created us to have freedom of choice.

6: The consequences of our choices have ripple effects. Our choices can trigger events that affect strangers arbitrarily.

7: Many times God does not stop the negative consequences of our choices from affecting others. Life would be chaotic.

8t: The natural world is synced to the human condition in a way we don’t fully understand. Instead of creation being subject to us, we are often subject to it.

Number Nine: God uses suffering to get our attention. Lewis, The Problem of Pain “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world...it plants the flag of truth in the rebel soul.”

10: God can use our suffering in other ways as well. God often uses bad things for a good purpose. Examples…It can make us bitter or better.

11: The end of the story will make it all worthwhile. The cross-bearers will be the crown-wearers. Dostoevsky, “I believe...in the world’s finale...something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts…for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.”

12: God has not exempted Himself from human suffering. This makes the Christian faith unique among all other approaches to the problem of evil and suffering. Story by Elie Wiesel. Yancey: “God too hung on a gallows, at Calvary, and that alone is what keeps me believing in a God of love.”

Dorothy Sayers, “God had the honesty...to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair.” The cross shows God’s solidarity with the world in its suffering.

Challenges:
1. Trust God - Can we find it in our hearts to trust Him even when we don’t fully understand? Illustration: A radio broadcast - a football game and static. The static of suffering is all around us, but there is also a strong signal that comes from the cross of Christ. Listen to it.
2. Become part of the solution - A reporter asked Mother Teresa, “Where’s God when a baby dies in a Calcutta alley? Her reply, “The real question is where are you?” Where are we? Example of wounded warrior Mike Day.

Too many times we stay parked by the questions...time to move on...time to make it our mission to care for the wounded.

The Better Angels of our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, Steven Pinker - Penguin
Where Is God When It Hurts? Phillip Yancey - Zondervan
The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis - MacMillan