The Paradox of a Good God in a World of Suffering

People will often attempt to refute the existence of a loving God because in their limited human capacity, they cannot logically wrap their minds around the concept that he can exist amidst a world filled with so much suffering. We don’t argue or question the existence of suffering in the world. Suffering is something we know to be true because we see it all around us, we feel it, we experience it personally, and therefore it becomes a reality. But what if God’s Goodness was something you could experience in the same way? What if his goodness became such an intense reality that we could not argue it or dispute it? How do you live in that kind of paradoxical reality? That is what happened to me; I experienced Gods unimaginable goodness amidst a world plagued by suffering and thus began the journey to discovery how it all works together and what implications does that have on my future.
The thing is that we are human, and while God has given us the ability to think, analyze and reason, we can never fully see thing s through the lens of eternity. God exists outside the limits of time. Our past, present and future are all viewed equally and simultaneously because God is eternal and in his domain time does not exist. He knows where we have been, where we are now and where we are going.
God is bigger than the suffering that goes on in this world. While he could step in at any moment and sovereignly put an end to it, more often than not he will choose to use people to be his hands and his feet. Why did he choose to do it this way? I can’t answer that, however there are a few things I am learning that help me to understand things better.
I often struggle with the concept of free will; it’s something that makes my head spin and my brain hurt. But I look at it this way…if you forced someone to marry you and love you, how much would their love be worth? God has given us choices and ultimately I do believe we have free will. We were created to love God, to know him and be used by him. But he gave us the ability to choose NOT to love him, because only then does his love have any real value. God didn’t want a world full of robots, so he gave us a choice. So what happens to a world full of people who were created to love God, to know him and be known by him, but fail to understand what they were created for? In every human heart God has placed a hunger to be known and loved. It’s more than a hunger, it’s a need. The root of suffering is a need that goes unmet, which then spirals out of control. People go through their lives knowing there is something missing; they spend their entire lives searching for something else to fill that void that only the love of God can fill. The harder people search and seek outside themselves, the more suffering prevails. What ends up happening is you get a population of hurting, broken people, but that’s not the way that God intended for it to be. He is looking for people who are willing to partner with him to attack the suffering through his goodness. To show people who they really are and who they were created to be.
Now I don’t want to insinuate that world change can only come about by people who know God. There are plenty of people in the world who do not know God and they have a heart to see an end to suffering. There are people that make a huge positive impact on society who don’t believe in God at all. But people will always be limited in what they can achieve on human effort alone in the simple fact that they only have eyes to see what is in front of them. Hayfords Bible handbook states it this way, “Time is like a parade that man sees only a segment at a time. But God sees time in it’s entirety.” Without knowing God, you can address a need, you can promote a cause, but you are still limited to only being able to see that one segment of the parade. When you decide to partner with God, he actually gives you eyes to see through the lens of eternity. He gives you divine insight into people’s hearts, how he has created them, how he wants to use them and how to set them free. You are treating not just the symptom, but the disease itself. The amazing thing is that God has the ability to take the worst suffering in our lives and use it for the good, enabling us to make a huge impact in the lives of others.
For school I had to choose from one of the many options of various outreaches where we would basically go out into the community and share the love of God with people. Our goal wasn’t to go out and preach religion or convert people; it was simply to be a living example of God’s love. I prayed over which outreach God wanted me to be a part of and decided on one that reaches out to women in a drug rehab facility. Having grown up around addiction, I really have a heart to see people set free. There were times growing up when I would cry out to God asking him how he could allow something so painful and so destructive to tear apart my family. No rehab, treatment facility, medication or therapy could fix my family until God stepped in and changed everything. Out of that suffering I have a huge testimony of Gods goodness and his ability to restore that which was thought at one point to be irreparable. I sat in this room of about 25 women and I could barely contain my emotions. These were women with amazing gifts, women with potential, women with destinies. In that moment, I knew God had a plan and a purpose behind every negative thing that had every happened to me. He redeemed my suffering by allowing me to be an instrument of hope to these women. The Hebrew root for the word “testimony” is “do again.” I realized that in sharing my testimony with these women it was a prophetic declaration that what God did for me, he would do again for them. And in that moment the paradox of a the goodness of God amidst a world of suffering began to make complete sense to me. I realized that this is what I was created for; to bring the goodness of God into the darkest places so that God can redeem it with his love, seeing both what lies behind and what lies ahead. This was only day one of my outreach, but as I hugged these women goodbye, with tears and hope in their eyes, I knew I was exactly where God wanted me to be. I was flooded with the revelation that no matter what I faced, God knew where I was going, and if I only listen to his voice; he will lead me where he desires, for he is a good God.

Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.