questions
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Suffering
Why does God allow people to suffer?
Ya know Joe, I believe that question gnaws at the heart of every human - Christian or not, who is living or has lived on this earth. I’ve heard many attempts to answer it; some make some sense and others… well, maybe. The bottom line for me is that’s a question that I can’t answer because…I’m not God. To be sure, it will be one I’d like to ask God when I get to Heaven. Having said that, I can offer perhaps an insight from my own experience. When I have gone through tough times in my life and pleaded to God for an answer to that question, I have found that ultimately I have felt a spiritual presence that even allows me to shout out in anger. The Bible tells me God’s ok with this. I have found that He doesn’t turn his back on me. He’s ok with asking tough questions. I love to think of a visual picture of God walking along side me at times, at other times, He carries me, other times He’s in front of me leading me, and even other times, He’s behind me (although I’m not a big fan of this picture). I have also found that the some of the most compelling stories told by someone who believes in God are those where God has been so real in those very types of situations. When I hear their pain and hear how God was present through those times, well, it’s pretty hard to argue that there was some “presence” there that meant a lot. There are lots of examples of people suffering in the Bible. I’d like to tell ya that God always healed or spared people from trouble. The truth of the matter is it doesn’t always work out that way. Suffering…wouldn’t life be so much better without it?!!!