The problem of pain–existence of suffering in a world allegedly controlled by a benevolent and all-powerful God–is the number one issue that seems to drive atheists away from Christianity.  I don’t think that this is as big a problem as many make it out to be.  I think that this is as big a problem as you want it to be.

God’s love is only properly understood side-by-side with His wrath, not in opposition to it.  Like any father, He only wants what is best for His children.  This means that, unfortunately, discipline is often necessary.

God has disciplined us specifically in the Bible (Gen 3:14-19, for example).  But more often than not, I think that, like any good father, He simply allows us to stumble and fall on our own.  This means that we create many of the problems in this world ourselves.

God, benevolent though He is, should not be obligated to clean up our messes.  We create most of the problems on this little blue dot, and we should accept that responsibility and clean them up–without expecting God to snap His fingers and make it all better.

However, there must be a reason why God allows us to suffer at times.  I propose that He lets us suffer for two main reasons.  First, He does it to teach us something.  Second, He does it because that is what is best for us.

I can speak as a father now, and use my daughter Ashleigh to illustrate my point.

Ashleigh still has trouble controlling her muscles.  I’ve obviously been controlling my muscles for many, many years now; so I find it amazing that this little girl actually has to learn how to do that from scratch.  She’s not skillful in the least, yet.  Sometimes, she scratches her eyes.  She’s never put a fingernail directly into her eye, but I imagine that someday she will.

My point is that I can try to take her hand away from her eye as much as I want to.  I can warn her to be careful, but at one month old that isn’t going to make a whole lot of impact.  Nope, painful as it may be, the best way is to actually let her scratch her eye.  She will learn the lesson much faster than if I try to save her from it once too often.

Ashleigh is very squirmy.  She flails about a lot.  She hates being tied down for any length of time, and was been like this even in utero.  She was known to kick monitors away when the doctors would try to perform tests on her.

Given this, you can imagine that she hates to be swaddled.  Sometimes, however, swaddling is the only way to calm her down or even to keep her warm with this cold November weather.  As much as she struggles against it, I know what is best for her–and sometimes swaddling is just what she needs.

The second example makes a great explanation for the problem of pain.  Sometimes, we confuse our needs with our wants.  God knows exactly what we need, and I think that an honest person who looks back at a trial in his life will decide that he needed that to happen at that moment.  I know that the first year of marriage for me was rough, but I believe that it was just what Jody and I needed to become stronger as a couple.

Maybe someone who is reading this went through a trial for which there is no explanation.  He didn’t seem to need it to happen.  He didn’t learn anything.  Does this invalidate my theory?  I don’t think so.  Perhaps the reason has yet to be revealed.  I’m not taking the Christian stance that atheists hate so much here; these trials are to teach us something here.  That something may be a long way down the road.

Whatever your trial, remember the words of James, brother of our Lord: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (Jms 1:2-3).