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That's such a complex question - why there's suffering in the world. That's one I ask
myself all the time,
but the reality is it was never God's intention.
What God wove was
something beautiful - a beautiful tapestry
of creation and created order, where there was harmony between
humanity and the rest of creation, and
joy and harmony between God and humanity.
And that's what we see in the, in the narrative in,
in what Christians describe as the book of Genesis -
that there's this beautiful harmony - this, this perfection where,
where God and man walk together in the cool of the
day.
And that's like a prevailing question even among Christians - what is God's will
for my life? Well, we see it. It's that God and man would walk together in joy
and in harmony, but there's another part of our human nature when we ask that
question that we don't
really take into consideration, and that's our desire to do
whatever we want to do. And that's what we see
in the narrative of
the world's beginning - is that we have this harmony between,
between humanity and this harmony between God and,
and creation and, and then people
choose to do what they want to do.
And so really we're left with two choices then, right? It's -
do we want God to treat us as
automatons, as robots and intervene against our will
and, and not only correct the brokenness but correct our wrongs, and
and in correcting our wrongs, then we have to be held accountable for those
wrongs.
Or do we want free will?
I think suffering is somewhere between that reality -
the reality that God hates it and he's broken for it and he's hurting
for it, but at the same time he doesn't want to manipulate people into loving him.
He doesn't, he doesn't want to manipulate people into trusting him. He doesn't want
to force people to love him,
to follow him, to believe in him.
'Cause he could do that.
And so somewhere between God's ability to do
anything in his desire to allow us to make choices
exists the suffering that we create.
It's such a strange thing to blame God for suffering but
God is not the one that dropped the first atomic bomb, and God is not the one
swinging the sword
during the Crusades, and God is not the one with the machine guns in Rwanda, and God
is not the one
waging war on children in southeast Asia
through the sex-trade. That's people.
And so God's options are to have robots who
worship Him because he imposes upon their
will
or to create avenues for us to find truth, and
in finding truth find him, and in finding him find his real heart for the world
which we see revealed again and again in the scriptures - is God promises that
there's a
day that's coming where this suffering and this brokenness and this
unraveling of what he wove and called
"very good" that we unraveled through our choices
will be restored to better than new
and that all pain and all suffering and all mourning and all tears and all crying - all those
things
will fade in his glory.
But if he did that now,
by altering our will so that we would
live the way that he wants us to
rather than creating avenues for us to find truth and in finding truth, finding
him, then we wouldn't be fully human
because we would lack choice and unfortunately
99 percent of the time unless,
unless our hearts have been changed and, and turned toward God,
our choice will always be what serves us most
no matter what it costs everyone else.
And that's the reason for suffering in the world.