What’s the deal about pain and suffering?
Discussion question for February 26, 2010.
God is love and all powerful. How can we resolve this with the matter of pain? Prophesies about trials, tribulations and suffering come from Jesus and the Apostles. Pain and suffering is evident all around us. What can we do about it? What should we expect? How can we encourage ourselves and others when dealing with pain?
Here’s my summary of our discussion.
We only made it halfway through this topic, and will revisit it next week.
The origin of pain is described in Genesis 3:16-17. God described it as a result of sin (wages of sin is death). Satan attempts to deceive people into believing that God prescribed it as part of the curse. Pain, death and lies are the only tools at his disposal and blame shifting to protect the ego is a common tactic. When a person believes that God is to blame for their pain and suffering they remove themselves farther from Him.
God has access to love and mercy through which He forgives us and heals us from the wages of sin, including pain and suffering. He is able to convert the curse of pain and death into a prompt for reconciliation. As CS Lewis states in The Problem of Pain, we are given opportunity to respond to God when faced with pain. Without that lever we tend to consider only ourselves, and that we aren’t doing too badly.
We are commanded to alleviate pain (care for the orphans, widows, poor, hungry, thirsty, etc). As we do so, God is still in charge. He will use pain to draw and call some to Him. Pain and suffering is a polarizing agent, as was Jesus in His ministry. Truth calls some and drives others away, depending on the condition of the heart.
Pain can be a stimulus for drawing closer to God. We are not responsible for our pain (satan is), but we are responsible for our response to pain.