Why Doesn't God Fix Things?

GodWords Newsletter #81

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This is my longest post. If you need to read it online, click here or on the title above.

My new friend Anita (from India) inspired me to share this. I once wrote about the questions that God asked Job, and Charlotte was troubled by it. Here’s some of what she wrote, followed by my response.

It seems so cruel to use a living being to prove a point to satan… I struggle with this. I’ve read people’s arguments, God doesnt cause pain and suffering. But if he has every power in the world to stop the pain, why wouldn’t he…

Charlotte:

You make a good point. We do NOT naturally share God’s viewpoint. We have our own ideas about what’s best, and we often feel comfortable criticizing God for doing what we think He should not. I’d like to suggest that our natural response may not, logically, be the right response.

First, there’s the obvious point that God is God, and we are not. That has two major implications:

1. He gets to decide, well, everything. Good or bad, He has all the power.

2. He knows things we don’t know. There may be reasons that what we think is bad is actually best.

If God gets to decide, then our complaining accomplishes nothing. I’m not suggesting we just learn to like it when bad things happen, but that we have no control over our own fate. We like to act as if we do, but we don’t. If God were actually a cruel monster, we would still have to decide whether to please him or anger him… and it seems like pleasing a cruel monster is in our best interest. God isn’t a monster, but He does decide our fate.

Finally, we get to the most important point. Why would God do such a thing? As you ask: if God is good and loving, why does He allow pain and suffering? Why doesn’t He just FIX things? Because you’re a human being, I’m going to assume that you’ve suffered, as I have. As everyone has. The question isn’t simply an academic question. It touches us where we hurt. We all have tender places from what’s been done to us, and it’s not bad to ask why.

Why does God allow pain and suffering? Let me suggest that an explanation based on #2 above makes sense. We want to know things, but we don’t. We ask God to explain Himself, but He seldom does. We question him – as Job did – but He doesn’t owe us any explanations. I wish we had more explanations, quite frankly… but that’s my natural response. I – naturally – don’t have the information I need to judge God.

There’s an event in the life of Jesus that may shed light on the whole question of pain and suffering. We read about it in John 9. I’ll summarize: a common view in ancient Israel – along with the rest of the ancient world – was that health and wealth was a sign of God’s favor, while sickness and disease and poverty were signs you or your family had done something wrong. Along those lines, Jesus and His disciples were walking along and saw a man who had been born blind. They asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Seems like a legit line of questioning to me. Either the man had been blind since birth – suffering – because of someone else’s sin, or he had somehow sinned before he was born. Neither seems fair, obviously.

Jesus’ response shows that things are not always fair. We want them to be, but they’re simply not:

Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

That doesn’t sound fair, does it? God allowed him to be born blind, and to be blind all the way into adulthood, just so Jesus could heal him? Think of the frustration. Think about how many times he must have tripped over little things, how he had never seen his mother’s face. He probably wasn’t married, since he wasn’t likely to be skilled in a craft… not to mention the idea that his blindness seemed like evidence of God’s displeasure. How cruel! What was God thinking?

Let me suggest that we know what God was thinking: He wanted to display His works in that man’s life, so people would see them. Our priorities are not the same as God’s priorities. Had the man been born with sight, Jesus would not have been able to heal him. Without any sickness or disease, Jesus would not have been able to heal… to tangibly show that He is God, come to earth as a man. The entire book of John contains 7 main “signs” that show that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be… and here’s what John wrote about that:

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

God allowed the man to be born blind – a seemingly cruel thing – for a larger benefit: so that the works of God might be seen. Why? So that people would have evidence that Jesus IS the long-awaited Messiah. Why? So we might have eternal life, that’s why. It seems apparent that God is willing to use some people for the benefit of others.

I’m one of those people. I decided to trust God with my life as a young child, and have reinforced that decision over and over. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19, You are not your own; you were bought at a price. My life isn’t my own. It is God’s, and I’ve agreed to live in a way that pleases Him… even if it’s an expensive way to live. One small example: I’ve had more jobs than anybody I’ve ever met. I’ve worked part-time, temporary, on-call, project-based jobs for most of my life. It’s not the best financial situation, for sure! It was also incredibly frustrating. I wanted to take good care of my family, and moving from job to job – in spite of being a very good employee – didn’t look like success to me. I spent many years angry at God over the situation. I would find a new job, do it very well, and get promoted to a position of leadership… only for the company to go out of business, or to be let go by the new boss I just hired, or to be injured and unable to keep the job, and so on. Time after time, I had to start over. It was very frustrating, especially since my motives were pure. I took my responsibilities seriously, I worked my tail off, I did nothing wrong… yet, again and again, I suffered.

After being fired by my boss, I sulked for several days. I was tired of starting over. I was mad that God had put me in this position AGAIN, even after begging Him for help. Then, I remembered something. I remembered that I had dedicated my life to Him. I had told God that He could use me in any way He wanted… that I belonged to Him, and would trust that His decisions about my life would be for the best. I started to reassess my perspective on what success in the workplace looked like. Maybe changing jobs wasn’t a failure. Maybe God had me change jobs because I had already finished the work He sent me there to do. Maybe changing jobs wasn’t some kind of bad luck, but about moving into the next opportunity for God to use me to benefit others. Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t born blind or anything. I’m not really comparing my suffering to his directly, but I do believe that my suffering might accomplish the same goal as his did: to help others believe, and so be saved.

Does that make sense? Suffering certainly isn’t pleasant. We don’t normally seek pain and suffering. We can, however, see ways in which our own pain and suffering might be beneficial to others. I take seriously Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I’ve decided that it’s okay with me if God allows me to suffer. He knows things I don’t know… like who might cross my path today, or who is watching from a distance, that might need to see God working in me. It’s not a natural way of thinking… or is it? Don’t parents suffer for their children? I’m a dad. I choose my own suffering over my child’s suffering all the time. Don’t we choose less for ourselves so others might have more? I have no doubt that you do this sort of thing, Charlotte. In this way, you mirror God’s priorities. You’re willing to suffer when you see that it will benefit someone you care about. You’re being quite like God when you do that.

Maybe Job didn’t suffer so God could make a point to Satan. Maybe Job suffered so God could make a point to you, and to me, and to millions (or billions) of other people. Maybe it was more than worth it, in the long run. Maybe Job is watching, smiling with tears in his eyes, knowing that the hard things in his life ended up being good things for so many others. Does that make sense?

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If you would, please pray that God will make Himself clearly known to Charlotte.

I love you all.
❤️

The Conquest of Canaan Explained in 6 Minutes
As with the question of suffering, questions about God telling Israel to destroy people is hard to understand. Gavin Ortlund puts it in perspective. Video: 6:34

Is the Trinity Pagan?
Skeptics of biblical theology sometimes claim that Christianity borrows from pagan myths, including the idea of the trinity. I like finding the actual facts.

Why Should Christians Read the Bible?
Michael J Kruger points out that Christianity makes a whole bunch of huge, audacious claims. These are worth exploring. Video: 2:41

Why the Genealogies?
A lot of skip over, or breeze through, the lists of ‘begats’ in the Bible. This short article explains that they’re actually very useful and meaningful and purposeful.

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The Books of the Bible (Simple List)

Oddly enough, this gets a lot of internet traffic. Apparently a lot of people need to look up the books of the Bible. If you’re so inclined, I have separate lists by author, date of writing, and type.

Read It Now →

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In our prayers, we talk to God, in our Bible study, God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.
– DL Moody

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Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me Your love for humanity

Give Me Your Eyes: Brandon Heath

We’re often surrounded by strangers, and pass by without a second thought. From time to time, it occurs to me that everybody around me has a story. They’re either running to God or running from God. Most of them, it seems, are hurting. I want to see people the way God sees people.

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