Whether the logical outcome of our own buffoonery, the carelessness or cruelty of others, or as rain from the clear blue, suffering in this life is a fixed certainty (John 16:33). Degree varies for “fairness,” as we understand it, isn’t in play. If you’re reading this, unless you are currently on fire (or suffering thusly), you likely wouldn’t agree to randomly switch places with one of the other seven billion people on the planet. Yes, those in the West enjoy some ease, but suffering is inescapable, whether peculiar to station (Matthew 19:16-22) or common to man (Luke 8:41-42). Life can hurt in abundance and need.
In our rush to “run the race,” we sometimes tie our shoes together, or fail to notice low limbs and deep holes in our chosen shortcuts. Our ever-present penchant for sin, no matter how wise seem our decisions, makes for a gravely road under the skinny-tire bicycle of life. Hubris, impatience, greed, slothfulness and more have led us all to react, speak, choose wrongly, behave badly, and move impetuously or indecisively – hurting others and ourselves. Some of us won’t pay the ultimate price for our sin (because it’s been paid), but most of us will taste its rotten fruit – on a cot in a cell, or in a bed of suffering and regret.
Add to our self-inflicted wounds the unintentional ricochets or deliberate shots of others. Physical and painful or ethereal and emotional, the negligence and barbarity of humans, one to another, has been well-documented since Cain killed Abel (Genesis 4:8). Those surviving torturous blows might also suffer the tension between revenge and forgiveness, wrongly believing the former will satisfy where the latter is the only true, if partial, relief.
Somehow, sin is at the root of all suffering. The Bible makes that clear, but it may be an unsatisfying answer to sufferers. Karma seems the natural response to the dilemma. Basically, if your sky is raining manure, you somehow seeded the clouds (Job 4:7-8). It’s “you reap what you sow” as quid pro quo rather than as a guiding principle of sin and judgment (Galatians 6:7). Still, actions have consequences, and to the degree we can recognize our sin’s contribution, we have power to lessen our suffering by lessening our sin. Even this is of grace when we realize how miniscule is any blowback compared to the price already paid…or that deferred for later payment.
Finally, our sorrow can come as seemingly random as the cartoonish piano or safe that breaks loose above the city sidewalk, only to hit us while we’re standing in a Kansas cornfield. As suffering settles in after natural disasters, dreadful diagnoses and inexplicable accidents, “blame” is not so clear.
Regrettably, this is the place where many indict God, and reason, “a good God wouldn’t allow this if he was able to prevent it.” This perspective imagines a malicious ogre who delights in our suffering, or a hand-wringing wimp, “good” in motive, but powerless to help. Neither of these unreasonable facsimiles is the biblical God. The Bible shows a good and loving God (Psalm 107:1), sovereign over everything that transpires (Isaiah 46:10; Luke 1:37).
Truly, only a clumsy caregiver will speak first of sovereignty or “God’s will” to participants of tragedy, even if there’s some sense that it’s true. It’s also less than helpful to pose that weakling God who “suffers with you.” That’s your job (Romans 12:15). Instead, declare the loving God of promise, familiar with suffering, powerful over it and purposeful in it, as proved by the cross and resurrection.