Daredevil Thinking

I was browsing through a forum earlier today that centers around the thoughts and contemplation of Christians from many different walks of life. A new topic titled "When Christians Experience Sorrow and Despair" caught my eye; it was a topic about suffering in general. How should we respond to it? Is it possible to be happy all the time? Is suffering a result of sin, or is it sin itself? Is it all apart of God's plan?

One of contributors to the discussion offered a thought that I had never heard before; and it's something I'd like to write about today on DDT:

Suffering is one of the most difficult topics in Christian discussion. I don't think there are any easy answers to why there is suffering. All the options are unsatisfactory in my view. They include:

1. God does not care.
2. God is unable to stop suffering.
3. God has a special love for those who suffer.
4. We suffer in this life but will have joy in the next.
5. God wants to teach us a lesson.
6. Suffering is a punishment for our sins.
7. Suffering is all in one's mind.
8. Suffering gives glory to God.

[...] 

It is an unsolvable question in my mind.

Often many of these explanations are just excuses that allow me not to deal with the sufferings of others. If suffering is divine in origin, then I have no responsibility to help others. 

-Paul 

I think this is the perfect topic to start with after my writings about sexual diversity. What this man (whose first name is coincidentally the same my own, but I assure you that wasn't me who wrote the quoted words above) wrote spoke volumes to me, because I'm constantly seeing born-again Christians and evangelicals judging people that are suffering. "This is your fault," they say. "You shouldn't do that; it's not what God wants." As if those that wield a judge's gavel over the heads of sinners have some insight into the mind of God.

Shouldn't we be helping those who suffer, rather than ridiculing them, or pitying them? Unfortunately, many of us don't. Even I am guilty of turning away from those in need of a helping hand, or someone to lean on during a time of grief or despair. We fool ourselves with the "God's plan" argument, applying it to suffering, but suffering is not of God. If God created suffering, wouldn't He know it? If He knew suffering when He created it, then why did His Son have to suffer on the cross, or even simply become human? And if suffering is sin, and suffering is divine, then sin is also of divine origin. So did God create sin? Again, why the need for Christ to die if sin is of God?

When Job was attacked on all sides, physically and emotionally, with suffering; did he give praise to God for the suffering? No, he praised Him despite his suffering. That's what made Job so great, and his love for God unwavering. It was also the point that Paul (now we're up to three Pauls; have I lost you, yet?) was attempting to make in Philippians 4:11-12:

I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don't mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles.

-The Message

Bam! I believe that passage takes those eight typical responses to suffering that Christians usually give and tosses them in the dumpster. God does care; He loves you and wants you to look to Him no matter what is going on, because He'll show you the way.

Sin isn't divine. It was never from or of God, for He did not create it. Sin is a product of Satan, and though he may have once been seated next to the Father, he made the choice to refuse him. His choice brought sin into existence, and his choice allowed suffering to impact our lives. But no matter what sin is or is not, or where it came from or who is responsible for its unleashing, there is no excuse for us refusing to help someone; or taking responsibility to ensure they are comforted during times of pain or despair.

Is God incapable of stopping suffering? That question is as ludicrous as saying the sun must not be real because it goes away at night. Christ healed the sick, allowed the blind the see, fed the hungry, cared for the poor, and gave strength to the weak. And He continues to do so to this day... through us.

There is nothing beautiful about pain and suffering. It's cruel and tormenting. But as the Message's version of the Philippians passage says, it was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles. Our calling, our commission, was to love and to care for those in need. That is how we make disciples of Christ, and spread His Word and His love throughout the lands. That is what is beautiful.

'Till next time; keep on daring.