Introduction
Car accidents. War crimes. Abusive parents. Paper cuts. Human suffering comes in di- verse shapes and sizes. But no matter its manifestation, pain is an unavoidable part of being alive. In the midst of suffering, believers of all stripes often find themselves won- dering how a good and powerful God could allow such things to happen. At the same time, skeptics might argue that suffering is further proof that no such deity exists. In response to this dilemma, the beloved theologian C.S. Lewis offers his own explanation of why pain exists and how it functions.
The Conflict between Divine Omnipotence and Divine Goodness
The reality of human suffering poses a significant contradiction to any theology that pro- motes a portrait of God who is both all-powerful and entirely good. If God were entirely good, God would want to make sure that all His creations were happy, healthy, and con- tent. If God is also omnipotent, then He should have no problem carrying out this goal. In fact, God should be able to make humans happy with a simple snap of His divine fin- gers. But humans aren’t happy. They abuse one another. They die of cancer. They com- mit unforgivable acts of violence. Because human suffering exists, it stands to reason that God cannot be both good and omnipotent. Something in this equation has to give. God is either evil because He does not will the happiness of His creatures, or God is incapable of enacting the human happiness that He wishes to see. To reconcile God’s power and goodness, inquirers must redefine the terms they’re engaging. What exactly is the meaning of divine goodness? What does divine power re- ally mean? And what exactly does it mean for humans to be happy? A more detailed in- quiry into these definitions can help clarify how God’s goodness and power can coexist with human suffering.
First, it’s worth remembering that, although God is all-powerful, He cannot supersede the bounds of logic; not even God has the power to commit acts of nonsense. For in- stance, it would be impossible for God to create a world in which humans have perfect free will, and humans never feel the consequences of their actions. If humans are free, so be it, but this means that your decision to steal a car or eat too many Oreos will have real effects on your life. Free will means that you’re free to choose, but it also means that you’re free to suffer the consequences of your actions. Without consequences, free will wouldn’t be free. Imagine playing a game of chess in which you could simply cause your opponent’s pieces to evaporate if they put you in an unfavorable position. Imagine making a bad move and losing your rook, only to magically get it back again on your next turn. If your moves were free from all consequences, you wouldn’t really be playing chess at all. It would merely be an exercise in boring self-indulgence. In the real world, God is the master of causality, which means that God is incapable of breaking that rule. God can do all things, even the impossible (as is the case with the occasional miracle), but God cannot act in ways that contradict His own basic laws. From this perspective, it’s clear that God cannot create a world in which humans can run amok and do as they please without any consequences. Thus, God isn’t less powerful; God is simply playing by the rules of nature. Debates over divine goodness and power also require a reevaluation of society’s col- lective definitions of goodness. When most people talk about how God ought to be per- fectly good, they are depicting a world in which God gives them every little thing that their hearts desire. They pray for a bright red convertible, and so they receive. They ask for a hunky boyfriend or a sudden financial windfall, and they receive. For some, this reality is what a suffering-free world would look like. However, it’s worth noting that getting everything you want isn’t necessarily a sign of true goodness or kindness. Consider the activity of raising a child. If you gave a toddler everything they asked for and never forced them to eat vegetables, learn the basics of potty-training, or clean up their toys, your toddler would grow up to become a spoiled, obnoxious adult who can’t use a toilet. Such a person would be incapable of self- sufficiency. They wouldn’t make any friends, enjoy a satisfying profession, fall in love, or do any of the other eye-opening activities that make life so rich and fulfilling. By giving a toddler everything it wants and refusing to offer any discipline, you’re setting that child up for failure and misery. Even if this child manages to become happy in their dysfunc- tional adulthood, you would always know that your child wasn’t living up to their full potential or getting the most out of life. You would be stuck with the realization that your child is simply too incapable to ask for anything more. This logic can also be applied to God’s ways. God might not give humans everything they want, and human existence may not be as comfortable as we’d like it to be, but God is, nevertheless, doing what is best for His creations. Like the spoiled toddler, humans might not be able to discern that God’s ways are for the best, but this is indeed the case. One of the necessary steps of theological inquiry is recognizing and accepting that human standards are not the same as divine standards. Humans aren’t capable of com- prehending the value of God’s plans and ideas because our minds are too limited. Rather than pulling God down to our level and demanding that His infinitely complex ideas accommodate our restricted mental frameworks, humans should instead seek to expand their ways of thinking. Doing theology means that humans learn to see through God’s eyes and appreciate God’s way of acting. Our job is to push ourselves to think in divine terms rather than demanding that God play by our rules.
The Nature of Love
Discussions of goodness and power also inspire questions about the nature of divine love. What does divine love do? How does it act, and what is its outcome? In short, di- vine love functions by bringing individuals back to their ideal form. Humans are, above all else, the creations of God. That is their first and foremost pur- pose. A creation’s duty is to be perfectly aligned with the will of the creator. Therefore, God shows love to His creations by bringing them back under the fold of divine will. This is also the formula for attaining perfect happiness. For most people, happiness means a perfectly comfortable, healthy, and pain-free life. However, even this lofty stan- dard pales in comparison to the happiness that comes from being perfectly unified with God. Although humans have a certain standard of living in mind, God’s ideas are even better — so good, in fact, that they’re beyond human comprehension. But where does suffering fit in with divine love? Is it really possible that God is loving His creations by inflicting violence and disease upon them? Are these lived realities a punishment for straying from God, and if so, how can punishments of this magnitude be considered acts of love?
The Nature of Sin
Understanding the intersection of suffering and divine love requires a better under- standing of humanity’s biggest problem, which is the existence of sin. Many interpreters of Genesis have made all kinds of claims about the nature of humanity’s fall, often argu- ing that it had something to do with knowledge, mortality, sex, evil womanly charms, and a piece of fruit. These discussions, as important as they may be, miss the very heart of the story itself. When humanity fell from grace, the main sin in question was not disobe- dience or lust. Instead, humanity fell from divine union when it indulged in the sin of pride. Pride is the biggest sin there is. It’s the one that originally separated humans from God, and it’s the one sin that every human indulges on a regular basis. Pride is not just a deed; it is also a form of reasoning. Pride is the voice in your head that convinces you that your way of doing something is better than the right way. Pride is the suspicion that you don’t need to follow the rules because your ideas, feelings, or preferred speed limit are somehow not merely acceptable but superior. Pride is also a sneaky sin because it manages to change your behavior without your awareness. Consider the example of a lover who wants to do something nice for their beloved. The lover might be fully aware that their spouse is an introvert who prefers a quiet night in over a big party, so the lover begins by planning a nice dinner for the two of them. However, as the planned menu gets bigger and more extravagant, the lover be- gins to think that it might be a shame to limit the event to just two people, so they decide to go all out: They find a caterer, hire entertainers, and invite a few hundred guests. Dur- ing this planning process, the lover assumes that they’re jumping through so many hoops because they want to demonstrate their feelings for their beloved and make them happy. However, when the big night arrives, their beloved spends the entire evening wracked by social anxiety and claustrophobia. In fact, they don’t enjoy the food or the company one bit, and they certainly don’t interpret the stress-inducing event as a sign of love. The lover has missed the mark: While they thought they were doing something kind for the beloved, they were really indulging their own desires and inadvertently planning for the type of evening that would please them rather than their spouse. Pride can poison even our most mundane efforts. A pastor preaches an eloquent sermon, convincing himself that it’s for God when it’s really just to further his own ca- reer. A parent offers to coach her child’s soccer team, assuming that she’s doing it for the sake of her son when she’s really just trying to show up all the other neighborhood moms. A scientist develops a new medicine not to save lives but to line her own pockets and secure a shining legacy. In these cases, even well-intentioned actions with positive outcomes can be poisoned by pride.
Pain and the Invitation to Return to God
Pain is God’s answer to the problem of human pride. Through pain, humans experience the adverse consequences of their decision to turn away from God. After all, God is not the creator of guns, war, torture, hate crimes, and discrimination; these evils are human creations. By experiencing these forms of suffering, humans recognize what their ram- pant pride has brought forth. This revelation allows humans to see the pitfalls of their pride and realize the benefit of returning to God. In response to this theology, some may wonder: Why must these lessons be so painful? Why does God’s admonishment have to be so harsh? Lewis’ explanation for this is that God cannot undo the laws of causality. A creation in which actions do not have consequences isn’t a creation at all. It becomes as lifeless as the aforementioned chess match. However, suffering is painful for yet another reason: When humans surrender their self-will and return to divine will, they are, in some sense, experiencing a type of death. Letting go of pride is necessarily painful because it is a loss of self. Thus, it makes sense that human suffering, which reminds humans that they are creations who must de- pend entirely on their creator, must also be painful.
This might be a tough reality to accept. For those who still struggle with these ideas, it’s worth remembering that humans have a true nature that many tend to forget. You’re not on this planet to live a perfectly comfortable life, have a blossoming career, raise chil- dren, fall in love, or travel to beautiful destinations. Those events might happen to you, but in the end, they are secondary concerns. Your primary purpose is to be a creation of God, and creations are utterly dependent upon the will of their creator. Your foremost role is to be perfectly aligned with your creator’s role, and that is all that life owes you. Whenever you suffer, your pain is a reminder that pride has separated you from your true purpose. When pain happens, notice it and respond accordingly. Examine your life and discern when and where you strayed from divine will. Recommit yourself to perfect unity with God. Resist the urge to replace God’s better ambitions with the urges of your ego. Relinquish the desire to control everything and accept that God’s idea of happiness and goodness is far better than whatever you have in mind for yourself. Only in the sur- render of your pride can you find the true happiness that waits for you in God’s care.
Conclusion
Pain is an inevitable reality of life, and in your most anguished moments, you might feel tempted to challenge God’s goodness and power. What kind of God wants misery for His creations? What kind of deity is too weak to insulate you from all harm? But these questions miss the true nature of goodness, happiness, power, and love. Your ideas about what constitutes a good life are far more limited than you realize. The pain that you experience so regularly is God’s reminder of this fact. Rather than pushing away the suffering of life, examine it and learn from it. Remember that it is trying to point you back to the true source of fulfillment. Only by surrendering your pride and returning to God’s guidance can you live a life that exceeds the limitations of pain.
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