If God is a God of love..
In one of the more surprising events of the week, David Cameron was challenged by a Rwandan journalist as to why he was visiting her country when his own constituency was flooded. Apparently the British media laughed when the question was posed. Yet this is only surprising (or funny) if we have adopted a patronising attitude to Africa, in which we help them, but they don’t help us. It is of course the case that in the West we enjoy far greater material capital, but arguably their social capital far outstrips ours – particularly the kind of social
capital exemplified by a leader being with their people at a time of crisis.
All of this highlights the fact that Africans are not a people we can pigeon-hole, and one of the clearest examples of this is in their response to the problem of suffering, an issue that I suspect is on the minds of more than a few Gloucester residents this weekend. Amongst Europeans, the problem of suffering remains a significant driving force behind a very vocal atheism – yet in Africa, where material suffering is far more of a reality, atheism is almost unheard of. Whether or not this has something to do with the riches of their social capital, it illustrates the point that people respond to the problem of suffering in a variety of ways – and so we also need to vary our response accordingly.
At times, we might want to challenge why it’s a question for them at all – after all, notions of good and evil don’t make sense in the absence of God. Or we might draw attention to the sufferings of Jesus to explain that our God knows first-hand what it’s like to suffer. Or perhaps we’ll point them to the wider reality that although God has allowed some suffering we can’t understand, he has also demonstrated his amazing love in countless other ways.
In saying this, I often draw on my experience as a children’s doctor, and point out that I have never met a young child who didn’t continue to love and trust their parents even though those parents allowed the child to experience painful medical procedures which the child didn’t understand. Whenever I ask my non-Christian friends why they think those children continue to love, despite what they’re going through, they rightly reply: “I presume it’s because the children have a wealth of positive parental experiences that outweigh the harsh experiences they can’t understand.” Well, isn’t it the same with us and God?
Or maybe, you’ll describe the classic free-will defence, which says that God allows these things because a world with free will is better than one without. The point of all of this is just to say that there are many, many different reasons why people ask the question of suffering – and there are many, many different answers we can give in response. It’s unlikely that any of them will stun your friend into saying, “What must I do to be saved?”, but they might at least get them thinking it isn’t quite as big an intellectual problem as they thought.
Having said all that, to the person who is in the midst of suffering, probably none of these things will be helpful at that time. On the day that I wrote this, I attended the book launch of Andrew Bradstock’s Louder Than Words. In his book, Andrew details much of what the church has done to improve the conditions in which people live. And the fact that so many Christians are committed to the importance of social action highlights the point that even though we may not have a complete explanation for suffering, we are part of the solution. This is something Nick Pollard alluded to in his fantastic book, Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult. Nick challenges that it makes no sense to reject the solution God offers, just because we only have a partial explanation.
Of course, the ultimate solution to suffering is God, and the eternal hope he has promised. But in the meantime, our job is to demonstrate the nature of that solution by practical acts of compassion for those in distress. Fairly recently, in a very fast moving hard-hitting interview, I was asked by a radio ‘shock jock’ why God allowed suffering. My soundbite reply was this: “I don’t know, but I know what he’s asking me to do about it.” The challenge for us all is to put those words into action. After all, that is how we speak most loudly into the problem of suffering.
Justin Thacker, Head of Theology
capital exemplified by a leader being with their people at a time of crisis.
All of this highlights the fact that Africans are not a people we can pigeon-hole, and one of the clearest examples of this is in their response to the problem of suffering, an issue that I suspect is on the minds of more than a few Gloucester residents this weekend. Amongst Europeans, the problem of suffering remains a significant driving force behind a very vocal atheism – yet in Africa, where material suffering is far more of a reality, atheism is almost unheard of. Whether or not this has something to do with the riches of their social capital, it illustrates the point that people respond to the problem of suffering in a variety of ways – and so we also need to vary our response accordingly.
At times, we might want to challenge why it’s a question for them at all – after all, notions of good and evil don’t make sense in the absence of God. Or we might draw attention to the sufferings of Jesus to explain that our God knows first-hand what it’s like to suffer. Or perhaps we’ll point them to the wider reality that although God has allowed some suffering we can’t understand, he has also demonstrated his amazing love in countless other ways.
In saying this, I often draw on my experience as a children’s doctor, and point out that I have never met a young child who didn’t continue to love and trust their parents even though those parents allowed the child to experience painful medical procedures which the child didn’t understand. Whenever I ask my non-Christian friends why they think those children continue to love, despite what they’re going through, they rightly reply: “I presume it’s because the children have a wealth of positive parental experiences that outweigh the harsh experiences they can’t understand.” Well, isn’t it the same with us and God?
Or maybe, you’ll describe the classic free-will defence, which says that God allows these things because a world with free will is better than one without. The point of all of this is just to say that there are many, many different reasons why people ask the question of suffering – and there are many, many different answers we can give in response. It’s unlikely that any of them will stun your friend into saying, “What must I do to be saved?”, but they might at least get them thinking it isn’t quite as big an intellectual problem as they thought.
Having said all that, to the person who is in the midst of suffering, probably none of these things will be helpful at that time. On the day that I wrote this, I attended the book launch of Andrew Bradstock’s Louder Than Words. In his book, Andrew details much of what the church has done to improve the conditions in which people live. And the fact that so many Christians are committed to the importance of social action highlights the point that even though we may not have a complete explanation for suffering, we are part of the solution. This is something Nick Pollard alluded to in his fantastic book, Evangelism Made Slightly Less Difficult. Nick challenges that it makes no sense to reject the solution God offers, just because we only have a partial explanation.
Of course, the ultimate solution to suffering is God, and the eternal hope he has promised. But in the meantime, our job is to demonstrate the nature of that solution by practical acts of compassion for those in distress. Fairly recently, in a very fast moving hard-hitting interview, I was asked by a radio ‘shock jock’ why God allowed suffering. My soundbite reply was this: “I don’t know, but I know what he’s asking me to do about it.” The challenge for us all is to put those words into action. After all, that is how we speak most loudly into the problem of suffering.
Justin Thacker, Head of Theology
Evangelical Alliance Newsletter.
Pray for all those in Leadership that they would make rightful decisions and choices.
posted by dave b at 10:08 AM
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