Problems with Pain and Prayer

Why is there pain in the world?  Why does a good God let suffering happen?  Why is there no answer to my prayers?  Does God hear me?

These questions are not new.  Every culture throughout time has asked them.  I asked them.  I saw atrocities and injustices and heard of worse.  I questioned God, about His existence, for why all the pain, and for why prayer does not work like I was told it should work.

Two of the questions were answered through prayer, immediately.  I simply asked God if He existed.  He answered, “Yes.”  It was as clear as if someone next to me spoke, and I sang for a week.  I knew that some prayers were answered.  But that did not end my quest.  I needed rational answers.  I kept asking.

I do not believe in the goody-goody God described by some.  I do not believe He is so perfect that He hides from sin in some far away heaven.  If God is everywhere, then He is everywhere.  He is with everyone, not just the good guys.  That means He is with the worst murderers, rapists, and hypocritical church leaders while they plan and enact evil.  And… He let each one continue in their evil without stopping them.  This theology is biblical.  He let nations get horrible before He sent in other humans to annihilate them.

But, that does not answer the question of, “Why pain?”

The Bible describes God with feelings.  Some say the writers anthropomorphized God.  Some say this was Jesus.  I believe God feels.  Being everywhere means God feels every person’s pain.  He has been with every victim of every crime.  Not one of them suffered or died alone.  He shared their pain, and ours.

God took responsibility for all that pain.  He made covenant with Abraham (Gen 15) but instead of letting Abraham pay the price for his children’s eventual sins, God accepted responsibility for those transgressions.  In doing so, He accepted the sins of the entire lineage of Adam, including those yet unborn.  God, as Jesus, consented to physical life and physical death to show us how close He is to our suffering.  He knows it all.  Not one evil deed goes unnoticed.

But, that does not answer the question of, “Why pain?”

Most prayers are petty.  Humans are generally petty.  But even a contrite prayer about “impending doom” can be petty in contrast to someone else’s troubles.  I think God sees our petitions as if we are small children.  We want what we want when we want it.  NOW!  Yet, throwing a tantrum or “praying hard” does not get us what we want.  After a while, if we don’t get what we want, we think bad things about God.  He does not answer prayers.  He can’t answer prayers.  He is mad at me.  He hates me.  He’s not good.  However, saying, “No,” to a child is often the best answer.  They don’t understand why, may never understand why, but it is the best answer.

God does not give signs and wonders to those who simply want to be impressed.  Prayer is not about getting stuff.  It is not a magic wand to flick for miracles.  Prayer can make us feel better if we pray often.  That is because we are communicating our troubles and worries instead of bottling them up inside.  God helps us work through problems and often see our own selfishness as a barrier to a solution.  If we became upset with God, we stop communicating.  Not surprising, the benefit of communication leaves and all those troubles and worries stay within.  That does not mean God did not hear and feel your frustration and distress.  It simply means we need a way to release them, to grow past them.

A lot of pain originates with humans.  We as a society inflict it upon ourselves, and then expect God to fix our troubles.  Good people do not stand up to evil people who continue to spread their evil.  Instead of stopping the evil early, we let it endure until we must go to war to stop such things from continuing.  There, people die or are wounded physically.  All are wounded psychologically.  Wars happen globally.  Wars happen in families.  Consequences are real.  Churches are not immune.  Atheists are not immune.

My belief for why God does not stop these from happening is that the good people were supposed to act but did not.  Leaders were supposed to teach goodness, but the power hungry became the leaders and they preferred ritual and dogma that hid evil.  Leaders were to teach inner healing, but did not befriend those who bled.  A community’s morality and ethics can become so distorted they call good evil and evil good.  God went through all that pain with all those people, because we were not willing to step up early to fix our mess or help our neighbor.

But that does not answers the question of, “Why would a good God create a world with so much pain in the first place?”

The book of Job addresses that issue.  His friends preferred to hunt for something to blame.  At the end, God rejects their reasons.  However, God’s response to the question of, “Why?” is strange.  The short answer is, “Because, that is how I made the world.”

That answer frustrated me for a long time.  But the answer is there.  We don’t understand because our teaching is distorted.  Biblically, God did not create a perfect world.  Nor did Adam’s sin corrupt a perfect world.  Those dogmatic concepts are not in the Bible.  Our forefathers preferred to blame Satan or sin.  These beliefs were added because we do not comprehend why God’s creation included earthquakes, high wind, and so many creatures that harm and kill.  We can’t accept that God’s creation allowed for mutations that turn into cancers and kill young children.  But, God called all His creation “Very Good.”

We want to scream “God did it wrong!  A good God would never have done it that way!”

But what if all those frightening and deadly things are good for something.  Volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are good.  Plate tectonics makes earth a living world capable of making continents and shallow oceans.  Mutation kills some individuals, but it also helps sculpt life forms into an array of variation.  Bacteria infect too often, but they are used to make medicine, bread, and wine.  Maybe, to get to the really good stuff, one must go through hell.

God asked us from the beginning to be good.  That one thing would alleviate so much suffering.  He asked us to understand the good in the earth and the good in the plants and animals.  Understanding these would let us anticipate the dangers and utilize the resources.  Humans keep resisting these.  We do things the hard way because that is how we always did it.  Maybe, just maybe, God does not answer every prayer, because He wants us to grow up and learn to understand why He said, “No.”