Responding to a “pew to pulpit” question:
Where is God in all the pain and suffering? Is God with us? Does God help us? Or are we left to fend for ourselves?
Suffering is a sad fact and part of life, ever since the entrance of sin into the world with Adam and Eve.
Certainly, there are ways we can help prevent some types of sufferings and pains, and there are ways we can maybe even mitigate the pain. But, in our current world, pain and suffering can never be fully eradicated—at least not by us.
The main issue we as humans have, particularly here in the western world, is that we have a certain propensity to try and quickly fix all of our issues or solve all of our own problems. We try to brush our difficulties under the rug or dispose of them as quickly as possible. We attempt to get past pain and suffering as quickly as possible and put it behind us faster than we realized it was upon us. Largely, this mentality stems from a good majority of the secular world and the thoughts of the masses.
Back to the question: Where is God in all the pain and suffering? God is with us.
God does not want us to endure and feel pain. God just understands that with the presence of sin, it is, unfortunately, an inevitable facet of life.
Therefore, instead of giving us a quick dose of Novocain or morphine, God would much prefer for us to lean on God and on others as we go through difficult times, and for us to understand that no matter what type of suffering we may have experienced, or be experiencing, God is with us.
Ideally, this helps us to be better equipped for future tragedies that may befall our life. It teaches us patience, strength, endurance and an ability to rely on God when we often seem to need God the most.
All of this goes with the fact that in the end, once we have finished the good race, we will no longer have to fear pain or suffering, or worry about our future. On the contrary, we can enjoy the presence and bask in the eternal glory of God’s true heaven.
One day, pain and suffering as we know it will completely cease to exist.