Precious featuring Lucy Stimpson- Maynard from the album Precious recorded and produced by Ross Gill

To conclude this series of blogs on how can a God of love allow suffering, I would like to refer to my blog of March 17th 2022.
Richard England, the Vicar of Holy Rood Church, Stubbington once pointed out that we, in the West seem to expect to have a life that is epitomised by “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”- this is our right and something is fundamentally wrong when we don’t get it. In other parts of the world, however people are much more realistic and accept that suffering is a part of this life and we should not be surprised when it happens. This does not mean that there is no God or that He does not care – it just means that things will go wrong and His promise is not to take bad things away but to stay close to us through life’s challenges and His promise is not to take bad things away but to stay close to us through life’s challenges and sufferings.
In “The Case Against Christ” John Young (not be confused with Lee Stobel’s “The Case for Christ”) writes that we live in “a world that makes itself”. He says that as science has shed more light on our world, we have discovered that the finely tuned processes which enable and sustain life are inevitably fragile; good outcomes contain risks. The movements of the continental plates- an essential aspect of our eco system- can also cause earthquakes. The weather system on which life depends is extremely sensitive and climatic events in the Arctic can lead to hurricanes in New York.
God, continues Young, has created this amazing world with a life of its own – “a world that makes itself”. Accidents happen; they are not “sent”. We live in a beautiful and exciting world, but it is unpredictable, often dangerous and sometimes downright terrifying. Perhaps the act of creation inescapably involves the fact of suffering. Can we have one without the other? Jesus Himself accepted suffering as an inevitable part of life.
It is impossible to come through this life without experiencing some form of suffering – so perhaps we should not be surprised when it does come our way- and perhaps also appreciate the good times more than we do.

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