Pam Parish

First, I must admit that this article didn’t come easily for me. Actually, it was a labor for me because the topic of God’s goodness and our hurt and pain is difficult one. I don’t have all of the answers, and I still have more than a few questions that I hope I have the chance to ask Jesus when I see Him face-to-face. But what I do know, I’ll share with you here and maybe, for a few, these will be words of hope. At least that’s my prayer.

“The presence of love doesn’t mean the absence of difficulty & pain.” I actually heard this quote early this morning while listening to a podcast with William Paul Young, author of The Shack. It struck me when I heard it, so I immediately went to my blog and started a draft with the same title. At that moment, I simply felt like it was a good lead-in on the topic of pain in our lives and I knew it was something that I wanted to write about. Little did I know that later this same day I would have the opportunity to discuss this topic with a very dear friend who is suddenly faced with a very hurtful situation, full of pain, grief and hurt.

Pain, it seems, is the opposite of love. But isn’t the core issue here really a question of a supposedly loving God allowing His children to suffer sometimes horrendous pain and agony? And, to make matters worse, why does the hurt sometimes come right when we feel like we’re in the very center of God’s design for our lives? Love and pain certainly seem to be as diametrical as black and white - and they are - if you take only a surface look, but I think this question is a perfect invitation to look deeper. Let’s go…

Difficulty and pain are universal and no one is exempt from their snare. Pain is pervasive - it invades our lives in dramatic ways, often through death, physical agony, unkind words or actions of others, loss of income, relationship difficulties and thousands of other ways. And, when its presence comes bursting on the scene our worlds seem to turn upside down in a matter of moments.

In my personal journey with God, I’ve experienced many moments of difficulty and pain. There have been times that I’ve questioned God’s love in my life and asked the all too common question, “God, if you love me so much why would you let this happen to me?” It’s a natural reaction to our immediate circumstances. We’re hurting and want to understand what’s going on. The only problem with this question is that its focus is on our pain. You see, when we’re in pain, all we tend to see is the pain. Our thoughts, our questions, our actions and our plans all revolve around the pain. It’s in these times that, although we know God’s there, we are more deeply concerned about our circumstance than about resting in His loving embrace. But before we get ahead of ourselves, isn’t there still the question, “Why?”

Our world is broken and ravaged by sin. Suffering entered the world at the fall of Adam & Eve in the garden and, we, as earth’s inhabitants have been reeling from its effects ever since. This is the bottom line truth, that our world is sick and even the scripture states that the whole of Creation cries out for the day that God will redeem it. Sure, it seems unfair and, to be honest, I don’t completely understand it either - but because I don’t understand it doesn’t make it any less true.

If we were to all tell the truth, we’d realize that for most of us in western civilization, we not only don’t understand the idea of a broken world but we don’t think we should ever suffer. We have an image of God that is based on partial understanding. We see Him as the all loving and all protecting Father, and that’s exactly who He is. It’s not who God is that is wrong - it’s what we expect from Him in His role as our Loving Father. We have a sense of entitlement that says, “If God loves me…everything will always work in my favor…” But that’s not Jesus taught us.

…take a look at Part Two of this three part series, where we’ll explore what Jesus and the Bible teach us about trouble.

Trusting,