why

Suffering is not ‘natural’ to the human being, however it occurs with such frequency that it is common place, and thus is dubbed a ‘natural’ state of the world. I submit to the Christian community that not ever instance of evil is caused in order that we might learn, or be made more than we were previously. Evil happens, and the consequences of that evil are many times more than we can bear. This is not to discount that God works in all things, including evil to produce good, however, I do not see any indication in scripture that ever instance of evil is intended by God for some greater good. To illustrate my point allow me to tell you a story. I was once told of a tragedy that had befallen a godly and promising Christian ministry student, he was electrocuted while sailing, was thrown from his sailboat and with thousands of volts of electricity surging through his body was thrown into the water, now the electricity rushing through him would have killed him instantly had he hit the water, however, he happened to land on a dog that was swimming in the water, the electricity was transferred to the dog, thus the dog was instantly killed and he survived, though he was now a multiple amputee recipient and in the hospital. I was working with a friend of his, after explaining this story to me the first words out of her mouth were, “what am amazing ministry he will have now,” implying that this was all part of some divine plan, that he was meant to endure this suffering in order to reach others. This was very unsettling to me, though I couldn’t bring myself to speak about against such a thought due to the circumstances of the tragedy and perhaps the need for her to believe that God had something more in mind for this individual than simply the accident. I still couldn’t shake the feeling that this suffering might not have had a greater good in mind. But perhaps she needed to believe that there was a reason for this suffering, perhaps she was looking for an answer to the problem of this real evil that had slapped her in the face, whatever the case it seems very dangerous to assume that there is always more to instances of suffering than meets the eye. I am not implying that God does not work in the midst of these circumstances to bring about good, what I am implying is that the events themselves do not necessarily imply that there must is a greater good intent behind their causation. Suffering happens, just like the a ball soars through the air only to inevitably obey the laws of gravity and collide with the earth again, the circumstances of our lives, the choices we make and the nature of our world inevitably produce some instances of suffering. People fire shots at one another at close range and a bullet is driven through the brain of one of the shooters, the inevitable effect is pain, suffering and perhaps death. Things are put into motion and the effects are felt, a cold front collides with a warm front and the result is a storm, a piece of metal falls off of a semi-truck and is run over by a passing motorist, the tire blows and the car looses control and crashes into an embankment. Ever instance of evil cannot be accounted for biblically with a specific goal toward something greater. To tell you the end of the story, the promising young student circum to his wounds and died in the hospital after a week of pain and suffering, I am sure that he is sorely missed to this day.