---

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. Psalm 22:1. My inward parts are in turmoil, and are never still; days of affliction come to meet me. Job 30:27. My eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call on you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you. Psalm 89:9.

He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Isaiah 53:3. And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.' Matthew 26:39.

If [we are] children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ - if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:17. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. 1 Peter 4:12. For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well. Philippians 1:29. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure. 2 Corinthians 4:17. In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials. 1 Peter 1:6. If you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated. 1 Peter 3:14.

My child, do not despise the LORD's discipline, or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves the one he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. Proverbs 3:11-12. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God. Romans 8:28. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD rescues them from them all. Psalm 34:19. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18.

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Romans 8:35, 37. This is my comfort in my distress, that your promise gives me life. Psalm 119:50.

Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. Hebrews 13:3.

Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested... Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Revelation 2:10. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more. Revelation 21:4.

.....

The young boy had a refined and beautiful face, the face of a 'sad angel'. He was silent as the German SS guard placed his head in the noose. 'Where is God? Where is He?' someone asked. After the boy's chair was tipped over it took him an agonizing half hour to die. Again the voice: 'Where is God now?' Elie Wiesel heard a voice within answering: 'Where is He? Here He is - He is hanging here on this gallows...' And 'that night the soup tasted of corpses'...

Where is God when children die of hunger in a world of bounty? Where is God when a young mother suffers a slow, very painful death from cancer - painful because she refuses painkilling drugs so that she can be alert to say goodbye to her husband and three children? Where is God when an eight year old girl - a good, happy little girl - is abducted from her bed one night by a stranger, then slowly tortured, raped, strangled, and left in a gutter? Where is God when an earthquake kills three quarters of a million people in China? When millions of Russians are killed by Stalin? When Australian Aboriginal babies are buried alive with their heads above the ground, and the British 'civilizers' have a competition to see how far they can kick those heads - with the parents forced to watch? Where is God when a young 33-year-old Galilean with a passionate commitment to love and justice is hanging, nailed to a cross?

If we did not believe in a good (and powerful) God, there would hardly be a problem. All the great religions, C. S. Lewis notes in The Problem of Pain, came into being before chloroform.

Some suffering results from our own stupidity. If we inflict physical or mental pain upon ourselves we will suffer. If the only way to prevent criminals doing harm to the innocent is to punish them - well, we can live with the idea of pain that is 'deserved'.

But in a world of Holocausts, Hiroshimas, State-sponsored torture, and half a billion humans starving, the questions are very complex indeed. Simple answers are not only wrong, they're callous.

All we can do here is provide some time-honoured ideas which have helped sufferers through the ages. I hope they help you too:

(1) Suffering is inevitable. In pain we are born, in pain we mostly die, and we experience pain in between. Western expectations of a trouble-free existence, and Eastern notions of fatalism are both inadequate responses to this reality. God does not promise us a rose garden. 'We have no right to happiness,' wrote C.S. Lewis in his last published article. Malcolm Muggeridge called the phrase 'the pursuit of happiness' in the American Declaration of Independence not one of the fundamental rights of humans but 'one of the silliest and shallowest sentences I have ever seen.'

(2) Most suffering - not all - happens because humans are 'free' to do good or evil to themselves or others. We, not God, manage torture chambers, the arms trade, and the hoarding or distribution of food surpluses. God apparently thought creating humans with a free-will was a risk worth taking. Love for God and others is only love when it is freely given and received. The alternative - a world of human robots - is a horrible thought!

(3) Pain is 'good' when it alerts us to a physical, psychological or social problem that needs fixing. I've met people with leprosy who have lost limbs because they couldn't feel pain. Surgeons, magistrates, parents and teachers are sometimes authorised to inflict pain to cure, punish, help or discipline us. If the sickness or evil persisted, there might be more pain for ourselves and others.

(4) But pain is 'evil' when it makes no sense, when it seems to produce harm not good. This is a problem for those who believe in a good God, and those who don't. Life for either seems awefully futile sometimes. Richard Rubenstein, in After Auschwitz, says that after one learns about Hitler's death camps, to continue to believe in a God of love who acts for the good of God's people is ridiculous. However, a follower of Jesus affirms that ultimately the power of good over evil is greater than the power of evil over good. God somehow can write straight with crooked lines: he may allow pain, but never ultimate evil; and he is capable of using any evil to produce good.

(5) The religion of the Bible puts human suffering into a cosmic context: the battle of good and evil, God and Satan. The Old Testament has the story of Job, who suffered the loss of family, health, and possessions, and never found out 'why'. Job's suffering was part of a larger drama: his salvation came in trusting a good God even when he had no answers. In the New Testament, Paul suffered from a mysterious ailment. He wanted it removed, but the Lord gave him 'grace' which otherwise he might not have experienced without his 'thorn in the flesh'. There is mystery here: the 'earth is the Lord's' (Psalm 24:1), but it's been hijacked, and 'the whole world lies in the power of the evil one' (1 John 5:19) and we humans are caught in the cross-fire. However - and this is important - any particular suffering is not necessarily related to any particular sin we have committed (though it may be).

(6) God, however, is the ultimate victor. The cross on which Jesus died is the sign and proof of God's identification with our suffering. God's answer is 'incarnational', not philosophical. Where there's suffering, another's presence is always more compassionate than 'answers'. God suffers for us and with us. That's awesome, when you think about it.

On Sunday 23 January 1983, Dr. William Sloane Coffin began his sermon: 'A week ago last Monday night, driving in a terrible storm, my son Alexander - who to his friends was a real day-brightener, and to his family "fair as a star when only one is shining in the sky" - my 24- year-old Alexander, who enjoyed beating his old man at every game and every race, beat his father to the grave... My consolation lies in knowing... that when the waves closed over Alex's car, God's heart was the first of all our hearts to break... So I shall seek - so let us all seek - consolation in that love which never dies...'

That kind of faith lets God be God, rather than demanding God be God on our terms. The idea that only good things happen to good people was put to rest when Jesus died on the cross. God's love carries no promises about good or bad, save the promise that God will not allow anything worse to happen to us than what happened to his own Son.

(7) Does God allow or sometimes even 'send' suffering? God is all- loving and all-powerful, so the answer is yes and yes. Often in the biblical drama God 'sends' drought, plagues or armies; occasionally he permits Satan to afflict the righteous. But his goodness ensures that all suffering is ultimately redemptive. Hell - here or hereafter - cannot be the final word, otherwise God's triumph over evil would be incomplete. What 'good' is suffering, you ask? C.S. Lewis has a point when he says pain may be 'God's megaphone' to rouse a deaf world: without suffering we could be careless about ultimate realities, deaf to God's loving plea to seek him and find life. Then, many of his best saints (including Jesus) were 'perfected through suffering'.

An American asked a Chinese: 'Why, if God loves us, does he let the church in China suffer so much?' The Chinese Christian's response: 'Why, if God loves us, does he let the church in the West suffer so little?' Lev Timofeyev, imprisoned by the Soviet KGB, wrote, 'The most vivid prayers of my life were in my prison cell, which is the closest place to God.' One of the saints said, 'The cross is the gift God gives to his friends.'

(8) So it's not our suffering that matters most, painful as it is, but our response to it. Perhaps the best question is not 'Why?' (there may be no answer) but 'How?' Are we allowed to question God or even be angry with him? Yes, the Bible is full of laments - there's an integrity about its humanness which is absent from many other 'holy' books.

Suffering is the ultimate test of character. Tolstoy in his Confessions says people respond to tragedy four ways. Some are scared and mentally fly from it, perhaps soaking in drink to forget. Some despair and commit suicide (or want to). Some are grimly stoical: their heads are 'bloody but unbowed'. Finally, there are those who meet it bravely, believing there is sense in it somewhere. Christianity goes a step further, and asserts that suffering can be used: many works of social justice have followed a tragic event or experience.

Joni Earickson was paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident at the age of seventeen, and after years of frustration and courage this fun-loving woman communicates triumph rather than despair (and learns to paint holding the brush between her teeth).

Our best and most authentic response to suffering is patience and worship. 'Whatever happens, Lord, I will trust you.' 'Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.' As you pass through trouble, he will preserve you (Psalm 138:7). We are joint-heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him (Romans 8:17). 'Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of Christ risen' (Mother Teresa).

And never forget: 'No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it' (1 Corinthians 10:13).

.....

* God is all-powerful. * God is all-good. * Terrible things happen.

You can reconcile any two of these propositions with each other, but you can't reconcile all three. The problem of evil is perhaps the greatest single problem for religious faith.

There have been numerous theological and philosophical attempts to solve it, but when it comes down to the reality of evil itself they are none of them worth much. When a child is raped and murdered, the parents are not apt to take much comfort from the explanation (better than most) that since God wants us to love him, we must be free to love or not to love and thus free to rape and murder a child if we take a notion to...

Christianity... ultimately offers no theoretical solution at all. It merely points to the cross and says that, practically speaking, there is no evil so dark and so obscene - not even this - but that God can turn it to good.

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking, London: Collins, 1973, p.24.

Some years ago our twenty-one-year-old daughter and the lad to whom she would some day have been married were both drowned in a yachting accident. God did not stop that accident at sea, but he did still the storm in my own heart, so that somehow my wife and I came through that terrible time still on our own two feet... There came an anonymous letter from Northern Ireland: `Dear Dr Barclay, I know now why God killed your daughter; it was to save her from being corrupted by your heresies'... The accidental destruction of the beautiful and the good - the will of God! If I had had that writer's address, I would have written back, not in anger - the inevitable blaze of anger was over in a flash - but in pity, and I would have said to him, as John Wesley said to someone: `Your God is my devil'. The day my daughter was lost at sea there was sorrow in the heart of God.

When things like that happen, there are just three things to be said. First, to understand them is impossible. Second, Jesus does not offer us solutions to them. What he does offer us is his strength and help somehow to accept what we cannot understand. Third, the one fatal reaction is the bitter resentment which for ever after meets life with a chip on the shoulder and a grudge against God. The one saving reaction is simply to go on living, to go on working, and to find in the presence of Jesus Christ the strength and courage to meet life with steady eyes, and to know the comfort that God too is afflicted in my affliction.

William Barclay, Testament of Faith, Oxford: Mowbrays, 1977, pp. 45-46.

The riddle and insight of biblical faith is the awareness that only anguish leads to life, only grieving leads to joy, and only embraced endings permit new beginnings...

I used to think it curious that when having to quote Scripture on demand someone would inevitably say, `Jesus wept'. But now I understand. Jesus knew what we numb ones must always learn again: (a) that weeping must be real because endings are real and (b) that weeping permits newness. His weeping permits the kingdom to come...

Jesus in his solidarity with the marginal ones is moved to compassion. Compassion [means] that the hurt is to be taken seriously, that the hurt is not to be accepted as normal and natural but is an abnormal and unacceptable condition for humanness... Thus the compassion of Jesus is to be understood not simply as a personal emotional reaction but as a public criticism in which he dares to act upon his concern against the entire numbness of his social context... Jesus enters into the hurt and finally comes to embody it.

Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1985, pp. 60-61, 85-86.

Not only must we be able to express our anger at the system, the world, and all the evil we find surrounding us, we must also be able to express that anger toward God. It is part of the life of faith to be able to rebel, to quarrel, to get mad at God.

The notion will strike many Christians as blasphemous. Who are we to challenge the ways of the Almighty? What pretension!

But perhaps it is more than pretension. Perhaps it is a sign of how much we care, that we dare to express our outrage even toward the One who created us. This is a lesson Christians need to learn from Jews, who have a long history of questioning the ways of God - and not at all surprising, since of all God's creature, Jews are the ones with most reason to question both God's love and God's justice. (My sister, pained by a tragedy in her own life, said in more than half-jest to a Jewish friend, `If I ever make it to heaven, I'm going to line up at the throne of God and ask, `Why did you arrange it so that things like this could happen?' `Hattie', was his instantaneous response, `it's a very long line...').

Robert McAfee Brown, Creative Dislocation - the Movement of Grace, Nashville: Abingdon, 1980, pp. 89-90.

Rushing through the ecstasies of ambition, we only awake when plunged into dread or grief. In darkness, then, we grope for solace, for meaning, for prayer.

John Garvey (Ed), Modern Spirituality, an Anthology, London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985, p.9.

Suffering is a proof not only of the God-forsakenness of creation but of the depths of being. If there were no suffering in a fallen and sinful world, it would be finally severed from being; the depth of being shows itself in it as suffering. The mystery of existence is revealed in suffering... Suffering is a consequence of sin, a sign of sin, and at the same time redemption from sin and liberation from it. This is the meaning of Christ's suffering on the cross. This is implied in all ideas of a suffering God. Consequently, our attitude to suffering is complex.

Nicholas, Berdyaev, The Destiny of Man, New York: Harper & Row, 1960. p. 193

Clearly, pain does tend to rob us of the ability to rejoice and to praise God. The Living Bible translates Psalm 142 in a very realistic way: 'Hear my cry, for I am very low. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me. Bring me out of prison so that I can thank you' (vv. 6-7). It's as if the Psalmist were saying, 'How can I thank you the way I am? Free me, so that I will have something to thank you for.'

The whole purpose of pain and suffering in nature is good; it's to call our attention to something that is wrong with us, so that we can do something about it and get rid of it. When I'm sick, the pain concentrates my attention on my body or emotions until I do something to get rid of the sickness. The suffering and pain are good in that they center my efforts on getting rid of the sickness which is evil and is harming me.

Francis MacNutt, The Power to Heal, Indiana: Ave Maria Press, 1977, P. 149

God, who loves us with a love beyond words, leaves us free to make a radical choice: free to love but also to refuse love and to reject God; free to spread through the world a leaven of reconciliation or a ferment of injustice; free to love or to hate; free to shine with radiant communion in Christ, but also to tear ourselves away from it and even to destroy in other people their thirst for the living God. He leaves us free, even to rebel against him.

But although God leaves us free, he does not look on passively at our distress. He suffers along with us. He visits us, even in the wilderness of our hearts, through Christ who is in agony for each and every human being on this earth.

Brother Roger of Taize, The Wonder of a Love, London: Mowbray, 1981, p. 93.

There is an old adage in nautical circles to the effect that 'no sailor ever distinguished himself on a smooth sea'. This is a way of saying that it seems to take difficulty and hardship to produce human greatness. For some reason our full potential never comes to the surface amid ease and comfort. It was said of our Lord that he was made perfect, not in spite of the things that he suffered, but because of the things that he suffered. And thus, although the child within us would very much like to have it otherwise, it appears that challenge is the matrix of human excellence.

John R Claypool, Remembering who we are: David, an unpublished sermon, January 13, 1974.

Suffering is a part of life, pointing out to us the evil that is part of life... There are lessons to be learned that can only be learned along the road of affliction, hardship, and pain.

There's no getting around it, pain and suffering are inevitable. Our parents did not escape it, you and I will not escape it, and neither will our children. According to Philippians 1:29, suffering is here to stay: 'For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake.'

There are some who say, 'All suffering is wrong. All who suffer are out of the will of God. If you suffer, you are in sin. And since you are in sin, if you will deal correctly and sufficiently with your sin, your suffering will go away.'

That is simply not the truth. Scripture does not support such teaching! To be sure, all suffering is rooted in the fact that sin has entered the human race; however, not only has it been granted that we believe in Christ, but it has also been planned that we suffer (1 Peter 4:12-13).

Charles R Swindoll, Stress Fractures, Portland, Oregon: Multnomah Press, 1990, pp. 55,56,57

.....

Almighty and eternal God, you created mankind so that all might long to find you and have peace when you are found. Grant that, in spite of the hurtful things that stand in their way they may all recognise in the lives of Christians the tokens of your love and mercy, and gladly acknowledge you as the one true God and Father of us all.

Daily Mass Book, Lent 1991-1992 Brisbane, The Liturgical Commission, p.123.

I want my world back God. Why did you let them take it away? My world was large and colourful, I know it so well. My world was filled with family and friends, house and garden, shops and church; there were trees to see and flowers to smell, there were wide blue skies and black rain clouds; there were the pictures on the walls of my home; dog-hairs on the carpets, clothes in my wardrobe and washing on the line. Where has it all gone Lord? Please can I have it back?

Pain came and they said I had to leave my world for a while. My world was large and colourful, then: a ride in an ambulance, a red-brick building, a long corridor, and my world shrank to a large cream room and a world of beds and strangers.

Lying on my back I can't see the flowers or the trees only a glimpse of sky if I turn my head. There aren't any pictures on the walls and I don't suppose they have a dog here either. Lord, I don't want a world where I can't see my friends when I want to, where I can't hold hands with my family or complain about the ironing; I feel trapped in this smaller world. Lord, when will you let me out?

I used to walk in the garden now I am not allowed to walk at all not even among these strangers, each one trapped, like me, in a shrinking world of pain and pills.

He wants to open my eyes to open me to help me to see again to feel again to reach out and touch the lives of others. Lord, I understand now: my world is not smaller but larger because you have extended it.

Thank you Lord for this opportunity to laugh and cry and hold the hands of strangers.

'I Want my World Back' by Corrine Bailey, Gordon Bailey (compiler), 100 Christian Contemporary Poets, England: Lion Publishing, 1983, pp. 16-17

Lord, I am not alone. For this I give thanks. There are times when joy is an uncontainable cup-running-over - too delicate to share, too sweeping to bear. And I am not alone. There are times when troubles overwhelm - too nameless to share, too trying to bear. But I am not alone. \There are times when sorrow engulfs me - too deeply personal to share, too devastating to bear. But I am not alone, for thou art with me.

Sometimes I forget, and feel alone. You know how I have ached with appalling loneliness within a crowd, or with the unbearable isolation of four walls, knowing it is not walls which isolate - panicky, cowering, whimpering inside, and feeling alone.

The fault was mine, for you were there. Always have been. Always will be.

I am not alone. There is no situation, no circumstance, no place, no time, no experience which is apart from thee. For thou art with me . . . and within me.

May I remember, always, that I am not alone. Amen.

Jo Carr & Imogene Sorley, Bless this mess and other prayers, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1969, p. 89

Dear Lord, he must have been a godly man to have been able to pray so.

'I am no longer my own, but Thine; Put me to what thou wilt: Rank me with whom Thou wilt; Put me to doing; put me to suffering; Let me be employed for Thee, or laid aside for Thee; Exalted for Thee, or brought low for Thee; Let me be full; let me be empty; Let me have all things: let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to Thy pleasure and disposal; And now; O Glorious and Blessed God; Father Son, and Holy Spirit; Thou art mine; and I am Thine And the covenant which I have made on earth be ratified in Heaven.'*

Amen. O Lord, Amen.

* John Wesley

Jo Carr & Imogene Sorley, Bless this Mess and other Prayers, Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1969, p. 83

.....

A Benediction

And as you go into this day or this night, and into the future, remember:

The light of God surrounds you, The love of God enfolds you, The power of God protects you.

Wherever you are, God is: behind you, before you, within you, above you, around you, ahead of you.

You are blessed, and you are loved. May you truly know that, and may the joy of his delight in you make you whole. Amen.

And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:10,11.