Now I have to confess, a lot of times I pray without expecting a clear or immediate response, so when God answers emphatically in response to prayer, I pay attention!
During the 12 hour drive back to Bangkok, I spoke with a friend who works for an NGO company. We discussed an article I'd recently read regarding global aid and how there is not a one-size-fits-all magic cure to worldwide suffering. Then, she turned to me and asked "how do Christians see suffering?" This was it! The moment I'd been praying for! Of course, God has a funny way of speaking to you even while you're speaking to someone else. So now, I'd like to share my musings with you.
When I spoke with MaMiaow, I decided it would be best to start at the beginning. We talked about how God made the world perfect. There was no sin, no suffering, no tears, no pain. God made a paradise. He asked Adam and Eve to love Him and trust Him, but forced love is not genuine love, so He gave them the choice: would they trust the One who gave them everything, who brought them into existence and invited them to have fellowship with Him, or would they trust their own sense of right and wrong? They chose themselves. When they chose themselves, they opened the door for pain, because that's exactly what a separation from God leads to. And God, in His mercy, allowed death to keep us from suffering forever.
We live in a broken world. It was not meant to be this way, which is why we are constantly trying to make things better. It's also why we rebel against sickness and death. It's not how we were created to be.
It seems hopeless, irredeemable,but nothing is too big for our God! Nothing surprises Him. He knew what Adam and Eve would do even before He created them. He already had a plan in place. The consequence of sin is death. That's unavoidable. To bring people out of sin without paying the price is to cheapen grace, to say that sin is not as dire as it really is. It would make God impotent, a weak God who doesn't really mean what He says.
Sin demanded payment in blood, so God gave His own. Jesus took our place, paid for our sins, so we could be made right in God's eyes and be with Him.
So how do we view suffering?
Suffering is a result of sin. Even after we are washed clean by Jesus' sacrifice, we still make mistakes and suffer the consequences. People around us sin, and we are affected by their actions. Suffering arises because we are still broken people in a broken world.
So what can we do about suffering?
Any reasonably moral person will answer that we need to help those around us who do not have as much as we do. All religions tell us to be good people and to do good to others. They may differ in how and to whom we should be kind to, but the dominant message is the same. "Be good and good will come to you." You don't need to be a Christian to help starving people, people who don't have enough food or clean water, people who live where disease runs rampant, where simply staying alive is a struggle. Does it please God when people help each other? Yes, I think it does, because He loves us. The Old Testament is filled with instructions on how to be good to each other and live in good community.
But it's not enough.
As Christians, we know that there is no direct corre3lation between being good and receiving a reward.
Even people who deny Jesus is God's son, the Savior, cannot deny that He did good deeds. He loved the people rejected by society, giving them aid and dignity. He challenged people comfortable in their own self-serving ideas of righteousness. If anyone should have reaped great rewards, it was Him.
But He didn't. He was despised and rejected, nailed to a cross and crucified.
He didn't receive a reward.
Or did He?
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