Suffering and the Divine Secret

If God is all-powerful, and if God is all-loving, then why doesn't God stop suffering, evil, and pain in our lives? Many people wrestle with this question. It is really a question of God's character. What is God like?

To answer that, the best place we can look is to Jesus Christ. When Lazarus died, Jesus didn't go to the tomb with a smile on his face because he knew the purpose for Lazarus' death. Instead, Jesus wept. Whether there is a purpose to our suffering or if it is just part of life and free will, we can be confident that God hurts with us in the midst of it.

Jesus' response to evil, pain and suffering wasn't to create more, but rather, to rid the world of it. And if Jesus is the fullness of God in bodily form, then we know that God is also at work, not to create evil and suffering, but to rid the world of it.

Many people wonder why God would even create the possibility for sin. Why did God put the forbidden tree in the Garden in the first place? The answer must be found in God's love.

Love requires a choice. For us to experience God's love fully, we must choose God. Forced love is not love at all, it is rape. Therefore God's love required there to be a choice to either love him back or not. True love requires free will. Free will runs the risk of choosing against God, and the choice to disobey God has brought about a fallen world where we experience pain, suffering and evil.

Now God is at work restoring all things. We see that in Jesus. But to intervene in every situation all the time and take away all pain and suffering and evil would be a violation of God's love because it would violate free will.

So perhaps the appropriate question in the midst of suffering isn't "Why is God doing this to me? or Why is God allowing me to experience this?" But rather, "What does God's love mean for me in the midst of this situation?"

God wants us to be united to his perfect love. And one day when we are in the presence of God, and there is no more pain, suffering or evil, his love for us will lead us to a secret. It is a divine secret between you and God. No one else will know it, only you and God. Out of his intimate and personal love for you, God will give you a new name that only you will know. As a father and mother name their child, so God will give you a name that nobody else will know, a name chosen just for you.

So I encourage you this day...live in God's love.

"To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been
hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the
stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who
receives it." (Revelation 2:17 NRSV)

Look forward to the divine secret.

God bless you all!

See you next week at the Gathering!

-Tim