Thoughts On Suffering
You’ll be reading many thoughts in the blogosphere asking “Why”? It happens every time there’s a senseless death, massive tragedy…something that we deem “just isn’t right”.
One of the bizarre by-products of what we call “celebrity”…regardless if it’s musicians or actors, ’secular’ or ’sacred’…the nature of what they do, and how we view them, inserts them intimately into our existence. When it comes to Steven Curtis Chapman, his songs have provided a soundtrack to so many lives, including mine. And so we react strongly, as if the tragedy has occurred in our own family. (I know, in the classic spiritual sense he IS family…but you get what I’m saying).
So we ask why. And we don’t get answers. Certainly not answers we like.
I’m reminded today of something in a book by Winkie Pratney, called “The Nature And Character Of God” (published 1988). I don’t have the book in front of me, so this may not be a precise quote, but it’s close…
Question: If there IS a God, then why do good people suffer?
Answer: If there ISN’T a God, then why are they ‘good’, and who cares if they suffer?
The ache that we feel in our hearts, that makes us cry out “Are you there, God?”…exists because He IS God, and He IS there. The deep-rooted knowledge that something isn’t right, isn’t just, shouldn’t have happened…it’s hard-wired into us because we were created for something more.
And eventually, we find out that Romans 8:28 isn’t just something we quote when life sucks. It’s truth.
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.”
I’ve lived through the deaths of people I love that died before their time. I watch as a Godly man wastes away from Lou Gehrig’s Disease. I’ve caused the destruction of my own marriage. And every time…quickly, or slowly, but every time…God has been (and IS BEING) glorified.
So our hearts break. And God is God. 
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