Suffering

First, I would like to point you to an essay I read and found interesting, it is called The Problem of Evil by Richard Swinburne. The Problem of Evil simply asks how can an all powerful, all loving, all knowing God can allow for evil, pain, and suffering to exist in this world. Such an idea at first glance does seem incompatible. For, if God were all loving surely He would not allow suffering, but maybe He lacks the knowledge or power to fix it. Maybe He knows how and can fix it but chooses not to because He does not love us, etc. The four main arguments that the above link suggests are as follows:

1. God should not create anything that would do anything evil
2. If He does create those with potential to do something evil, He ought to make sure that they do nothing evil on accident

3. Freedom and responsibility have gone too far- There is too much suffering

4. If we have to allow for all the above, there should at least be no natural evils (i.e. hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.)

Being as long winded as I am, I could explain the responses posed by Richard Swinburne in the essay I linked you to- but it would take too long and you would lose any remaining patience you have for my thoughts.

So, instead, I will focus on what I want you to remember. Agency is vital to everything. If God in any way dictated who we are, we would no longer have any potential for growth or for meaning. Our character would be fixed, static for eternity. With the potential for evil, we have the potential to reach even higher, past all the struggles and heartache, on to perfection. On an especially hard day, it is easy to imagine it would just be better if we were all perfect already, never a bad day, never a struggle, no more pain. This ideal will come, but will be for the greatest good if we have the opportunity to progress and create the perfect world with Him.

Lately I have had a series of little, insignificant trials and I struggled to understand why. These "evils" were in no way eternally significant, and I couldn't comprehend why I had to have so many little problems.  Sometimes, even little trials are given to us and we just need to learn from them. No one is exempt from having a hard day once and awhile. Without these little trials, I would not have developed the relationship and deeper understanding I have of our God. I was not at the crossroads of my eternal character, but by making daily choices to trust and to be optimistic, I am building the foundation of who I can be for the rest of my life.

There are much bigger problems in the world than what I face daily. They need our care and attention. But, sometimes they are overwhelming. There is so much that needs to be done and so little time and cooperation to do so. Remember that just because there has to be suffering does not mean we have to fix everything right now. I find a lot of comfort in the Starfish Story, that just doing what we can, makes a big difference to someone somewhere. We do not need to be the Savior of the World, for we already have one. We are called to lift where we stand. Suffering is a natural part of life, but it has an end. It will cease and we can do a lot now to learn from and lessen the suffering in the world.