Suffering, do we have a problem?

I originally wrote this blog months ago, however, it is even more relevant today with all the Corona Virus madness going on. As we look around the world today, one thing that should be obvious to us all, is that this should not be. None of it, people should not be suffering like this. The virus itself (even for the many that survive) causes victims to feel worse than they ever have before. My own wife experienced this and found herself praying to God, asking Him to give her just one more breath to open her lungs. I can't imagine what that was like for her, with her family just in the next room, wondering if she'd ever be able to enjoy them again. A while back, a friend and I were discussing the hurricane that laid a path of destruction through Texas. Homes destroyed, families left with nothing, some people had been evacuated and the death toll had still reached 68 by the time the storm was finished. Again, in all of this, one thing is undeniable, this should not be! Watching the pain and suffering caused by the Corona Virus, or a hurricane, or any other natural disaster should cause us to evaluate whether the way in which we view the world can support the claim, “this should not be.”

Maybe, this isn’t your first question, and I can appreciate that, it’s not my first question either, but it needs to be A question. Here’s why: if our worldview doesn’t support the statement “this should not be,” then we either must find a new world view, live inconsistently within our worldview, or we must begin to try to live consistently within our worldview. Innately, we all recognize that it actually is something that should not be.  People should not lose everything due to any natural occurrence, people should not have to be evacuated from their homes, and people should not be praying just to get in one more full breath; this all screams to me that this is not how things are supposed to be, people should not be dying due to lack of shelter or lack of breath and so on. I think just plain old common sense can inform us on these issues. 

  Allow me to paint the picture using a worldview that seems to continue growing in popularity and has the most traction in more scholarly circles. This would be that of the naturalistic worldview. Within this worldview nature is all there is, there is nothing governing nature and everything that has come about is due to purely natural substances brought about by natural selection for natural ends. Within this worldview, there is no standard by which one can claim, “this should not be”. Nature is impersonal and is not moving in any specific direction. Some people live, others die, hurricanes come and sometimes they destroy, sometimes they don't. All of life is just random, and the best one can do is hope to get the most out of it while they are alive, because once you die, it's over! In order to live consistently in this worldview, there is no response to the devastation caused by a virus or any natural disaster that is actually meaningful. Of course, you may not like it, you can do all you want to stop it, but in the end nature is always going to do what it's going to do, it's exactly what you should expect from a world that is random, completely natural and without purpose. It's normal, but you cannot claim, "this should not be".

  Of all the worldviews out there, there is only one that I know of that can support the statement, “this should not be” and that is the Christian worldview. Within the account of creation, we learn that when God first created the world everything was good, and things were exactly as they were supposed to be. There was no pain, or suffering, until the fall. The fall is that moment in the garden where man attempted to be his own god. Since then, the world has been filled with things that should not be, (including us still trying to be god) and it will continue to be that way until our savior returns to put things the way they are supposed to be once again! Why should this matter to you? Simple, if the way you view the world can't even give you a valid reason for what it is you see when you look at the world, then it's time to give it up. Christians look at our current circumstances and recognize that this is the way the world is today, but it's not the way the world has always been, nor the way it will always be. We have answers for the pain and suffering that takes place in this world. This means that for us Christians, we can be encouraged, and for the non-Christian, it should cause you to stop and consider. 

I will admit, none of this does anything to answer the question of why would God allow pain and suffering in the first place, nor does it answer the question, if God, then why evil at all (maybe we can dive further into those in future blogs). However; it does give us the foundation from which we can rightly and consistently say, “this should not be,” it gives us the foundation that allows us to grieve our current circumstances while being consistent with what we believe about the world, it allows us to genuinely pray asking for God to help us and be grateful that Jesus has saved us!