A Look at Suffering - Part One - Something Ain't Right...

Like the song goes, "There's something happening here.  What it is, ain't exactly clear."

There IS something happening here.  We catch glimpses, we can feel it, sense it...yet we can't exactly put our finger on it.

Like Paul said, we see through a glass darkly...we see shapes and figures and can kind of make out some things...but most of it is...well, a mystery.

And regardless of your spiritual belief, you have to admit...something ain't right.

Things AREN'T how they are supposed to be.

This ISN'T what we were meant for.

This ISN'T the best we can do.

So what IS going on?

That is what I want to look at.

What gives us the best sense that something isn't right in the world is SUFFERING.

We all know it, we've all seen it.  And, at times, we try to help in some way or another.  Which is good, but in the long run suffering still exists...and most of us struggle to answer the question WHY?

Why do children die of starvation everyday?

Why do tragedies strike "good" and "honest" people?

Why does there seem to be no real order, only chaos, in the world?

All of this is part of God's will? His grand, Divine plan?

For my part, I never had a real good answer either - if I had any at all.  I would just fall back on my faith in God and say something like, "well God's in charge, so there HAS TO BE a good reason."  After all, this is God's world...we're just living in it.

Even for me, though, that wasn't  a good enough answer...there HAD to be a better reason.  If Christ is our "image" of God.  If we are to know God's heart through Jesus...

...something doesn't jive.

What I see in the world and what I see in Jesus are COMPLETELY different - and to think that BOTH are attributes of God...

...That's a God that isn't, to put it plainly, ALL GOOD.

Powerful?  Certainly.

Good? Can't say I would agree.

But through Jesus we see that God IS good, IS kind, IS LOVE...

And yet...

That's where I would get stuck..."and yet..."

and yet...

There is something happening here, and no, it's not very clear.

In following posts, we will dive in to the dark, murky, waters of the "why" of suffering.

Will we get all our questions answered?

No.

But, hopefully, we will get a clearer picture, a better understanding, and more importantly - a more correct view of God, and his heart, AND his will.