The single greatest challenge to faith is the reality of human suffering.
If the world was created by a good and loving God, why is life so hard? Why do good people get cancer or lose their jobs? Why are babies born deformed or starve to death? Why are news reports consumed with horrible accounts of deadly earthquakes and terrorist attacks? Why? Why? Why?
There are so many components to this complex question that no single approach is adequate in response. For the purpose of this brief essay, focus on just one idea with me: Where did we get the idea that faith was supposed to make anyone exempt from the routine and ordinary human condition?
Yes, there are some wonderful stories in Holy Scripture of how the people of God were delivered from peril. Joseph’s interpretation of a Pharaoh’s dream saved both Egypt and his family from a devastating famine. Esther’s boldness before a Persian king saved the Chosen People from Haman’s genocidal plan. Peter was rescued from King Herod’s murderous plan by an angel who came to him in the night and caused the shackles on his wrists to fall away to the ground.
But one should not fail to put these occasional miracles in the larger context of the characters’ lives! Joseph had been rejected by his brothers, sold into slavery, and put in jail because of a woman’s false charge of attempted rape. Esther had been forced into a pagan’s harem and sexually abused by him. The occasional miracles in the life of the Apostle Peter for the sake of his ministry of the gospel did not spare him beatings, prison, and a martyr’s death.
Whether a Bible character or someone today who is trying to teach the Bible in Sunday School, life is a mixed bag of highs and lows, times of incredible joy and excruciating heartache, tastes of God’s goodness and Satan’s malice. That someone believes in God and is known for her Christian integrity does not and cannot be expected to exempt her from the dark side of human experience.
Think about it this way: If being a Christian meant your business couldn’t fail, your children couldn’t be hurt in car accidents, and you couldn’t have a heart attack, everyone would be a Christian. Right? But all that would prove is that we are all selfish enough that we don’t want anything to go wrong in our lives! There would be no testing of faith and no opportunity to exhibit determination and courage in times of triumph or integrity, poise, and dignity in times of loss.
I once heard a man lament his personal sorrow and then say, “But where the sun shines all the time is barren desert. My life has needed the shadows and storms to teach me lessons about humility in my own life and compassion for others in their sorrows. With all its pain, I am sure life works just as it should.”
Faith does not grant a pass on suffering. It does, however, promise God’s presence in trials now and his reward in the new heaven and earth yet to come.
by Dr. Rubel Shelly –