Randy Alcorn - If God Is Good: Why Do We Hurt?

I know the things that happen: the loss and the loneliness and the pain. But theres a mark on it now: as if Someone who knew that way Himself, because He had travelled it, had gone on before and left His sign; and all of it begins to make a little sense at lastgathered up, laughter and tears, into the life of God, with His arms around it!
P AUL S CHERER

Y OU MAY BE READING this booklet because you long to make sense of the evil and suffering in this world. You might be seeking answers to a philosophical problem, or perhaps youve lived long enough to recognize that suffering is inevitable, and you want to be prepared to face it.

Or, if abuse, desertion, debilitating disease, or the loss of a loved one has devastated you, then your suffering isnt theoretical or philosophical. Its deeply personal; you need comfort, not intellectual answers.

Three weeks after his thirty-three-year-old son Christopher died in a car crash, pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie addressed a crowd of twenty-nine thousand at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California: Ive talked about Heaven my whole life, and Ive given many messages on life after death. Ive counseled many people who have lost a loved one. But I have to say that when it happens to you, its a whole new world. The day his son died, he told them, was the hardest day of my life.

When I spoke with Greg ten months later, his faith was strong, but his profound sense of loss remained. Pain is always local. It has a face and a namein Gregs case, Christopher. You and I can fill in our own names.

The way we view such suffering will radically affect how we see God and the world around us. The problem of evil and suffering is the most common reason people give for not believing in God. A Barna Research poll asked, If you could ask God only one question and you knew he would give you an answer, what would you ask? The most common response was, Why is there pain and suffering in the world? This isnt merely a problem; its the problem. And for the culture at large, it appears to pose a greater difficulty now than ever.

Im a fellow traveler with you on this road of suffering: As a teenager, I watched my friend Greg die from a horrible accident. I had to tell my mother that her brother had been murdered. My mom and my best friend both died from cancer, and an unjust lawsuit cost me a ministry I loved. I held my wifes and daughters hands as we watched my shriveled father die. For twenty-five years now Ive battled a disease that daily affects my body and mind, and will probably shorten my life.

But all in all, if Ive suffered a little more than some people, Ive suffered a great deal less than many others.

This booklet offers some of what I consider the most helpful perspectives discussed in my larger work entitled If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil. During the two years it took me to research and write that book, I read books by atheists and Holocaust survivors, and interviewed dozens of men and women whove endured extreme evil and suffering.

Along the way Ive asked God to give me wisdomand discovered that wisdom begins with the humility to say: theres a great deal about this I dont understand.

In my own personal search for answers, Ive beheld the God who says, I have indeed seen the misery of my people. I have heard them crying out , and I am concerned about their suffering (Exodus 3:7). I revel in Gods emphatic promise in the Bible that he will make a New Earth where hell come down to live with his people, he will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4).

Often, as Ive contemplated potentially faith-jarring situations and sought his truth, God has wiped away my own tears. While my journey hasnt unearthed easy answers, Im astonished at how much insight Scripture offers. And after much wrestling with the issues, instead of being disheartened, I have hope. Im encouragedespecially from seeing more of Gods goodness, love, holiness, justice, patience, grace, and mercy.

Thats why I frequently quote Scripture in these pages. As you read along, I urge you not to let your feelingsreal as they areinvalidate your need to let the truth of Gods words guide your thinking. Remember that the path to your heart travels through your mind. Truth matters.

So as you deal with suffering, by all means speak with a friend or pastor or counselor, or join a support group. Do not, however, ignore Gods revealed truth about evil and suffering, or his character, purposes, and plans. Quick-fix feeling adjustments will never sustain you over the long haul. But deeply rooted beliefsgrounded in Scripture and empowered by Gods Spiritwill afford you mental and emotional strength to persevere and hold on to a faith built on the solid rock of Gods truth, no matter how fierce the storms of suffering.

W E ALL KNOW SOMETHINGS WRONG whenever were hurting. The pain of suffering points to this worlds deep and unacceptable flaws. We instinctively sense a link between suffering and evil. But how do we explain it? When we examine the Bibles perspective on evil, we learn that its essence is a refusal to accept the true God as God. Instead, evil elevates someone or something else in Gods place. This is an act of idolatry and rebellion against God.

Most people today understand evil as anything that causes harm. The Bible uses the word evil in a broader way to describe anything that violates Gods moral will and therefore displeases him.

Evil is more than merely the absence of good; its the corruption of good, like rust on metal or cancer in the cells of a living body.

The first human sin, when Eve and Adam disobeyed God (see Genesis 3), initiated sweeping consequences, including a curse on the natural world. That initial moral evil loosed ever-expanding suffering. So suffering follows evil as a caboose follows an engine.

We can therefore think of moral wrongdoing as primary evil and suffering as secondary evil. Secondary evils are things that happen to us that we dont like; theyre caused by primary evils, which are things we do that God doesnt like.

Scripture doesnt minimize suffering or gloss over it, or shy away from its implications. One of many examples is this outburst from a prophet named Habakkuk:

How long, O L ORD , must I call for help,
but you do not listen?
Or cry out to you, Violence!
but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrong?
(Habakkuk 1:23)

The root issue behind this mans cryand behind our own similar questioningis a problem that people have expressed in various ways, with different nuances. Ill state it this way:

If God is good and all-knowing and all-powerful, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? Surely he wants to prevent it, knows how to prevent it, and has the ability to prevent it. So why doesnt he?

The Bible never retreats from this issue. Neither should we.

T HE STORY OF C REATION , F ALL, AND R EDEMPTION , with all the tragedy and suffering it entails, makes many people wonder whether God should have done things differently. But as a novelist, Ive written a number of stories and studied the craft of storytelling. So I want to ask you a question: if you, instead of God, were the author of this story, how would