Why Suffering - Part 2!

I promised it, so without further ado - here it is!

WHY SUFFERING? - PART 2...

At that point she was called away to attend to a customer, so that was the end of our conversation. But I was thinking later about how much of the World's suffering is not even caused by the DEVIL, and certainly not because GOD wants to be mean to people, but rather through MAN'S OWN FOOLISHNESS. Man is his own worst enemy!

Look at the suffering that Man has caused himself by continually fighting terrible wars in which millions have been killed or injured! Martin Luther (a Christian reformer who went loggerheads against the church of his day over ideas like salvation by grace, not needing to pay a bunch of useless fees, and sex not being a sin) called war "the greatest scourge that can afflict humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states and it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it!"

But is GOD to blame for Man's wars? The Bible says, "What causes wars and fightings among you? Don't they come from your OWN LUSTS that battle inside you?"--James 4:1. God isn’t to blame for the suffering caused by war, but rather Man's own selfishness, greed, pride and competitive spirit--the destruction of others for greed or selfish gain--THIS causes wars!

And War isn’t the only thing – there’s also car accidents, which are actually an even greater cause of deaths today then wars! Can you imagine that? More people die every year from the vehicles WE invented then the wars we fight!

Far too many of Man's inventions, such as weapons of war, too-rapid transportation, towering skyscrapers, pesticides, lethal chemicals, drugs etc., are death-dealing and destructive and cause all sorts of suffering.

Problems like these are caused by MAN'S own foolishness over a number of years, often centuries! -- Problems which have steadily grown over successive generations. Can we really blame GOD for all the crap in the world today?

If we were to try to cover ALL the causes of suffering in this World, it would probably take a book! But I hope I've at least given you SOME answers to one of the great eternal questions of this life: "Why does God allow suffering?"

Because WE'VE brought it on OURSELVES! Though we can understand MANY of the reasons through reading God's Word and through prayer, we probably won't know ALL the answers to that question until we get Up There, as there are some things we won't understand until we see things as God sees them.

A very fitting illustration of this is the story of Doctor Handley Moule, when he visited a coal mine immediately after a terrible underground explosion. At the pit's mouth was a large crowd, among whom were the relatives of the trapped and suffering miners.

"It’s very difficult," he said, "for us to understand why God should let such an awful tragedy happen. But I have at home an old bookmarker given me by my Mother. It’s woven in silk, and when I look at the wrong side of it, I see nothing but a tangled mass of threads. It looks like a big mistake! You’d think someone had made it who didn’t know what she was doing.

But when I turn it over and look at the right side, I see there, beautifully embroidered, the letters, 'GOD IS LOVE!'"

"We are looking at this today," he continued, "from the wrong side! Someday we’ll view it from another standpoint and we will understand."

God ALWAYS has a purpose and a plan in suffering, even though we can't always see it right away!

Sometimes, "His ways are past finding out" (Romans 11:33), and we just have to TRUST God, knowing that whatever He does, He does it in LOVE, and that if we don't understand NOW, we will LATER!