Where is god amidst the suffering

Suffering has the power to lay waste to our idols. No passage captures this better than 2 Corinthians — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.

For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

God causes us to long for and experience his comfort so that we would be ready to be agents of his comfort in the lives of others. This means that our suffering has ministry in view. Your hardships qualify you to be part of the most wonderful and important work in the universe. But God has used my weakness, confusion, and fear to soften my heart and make me much more willing and able to enter into the trials of others with an understanding and compassionate heart.

Suffering is meant not to drive us inside ourselves but to lead us out to offer to others the beautiful hope, comfort, joy, and security that God has given us. Notice how this passage ends. Like Paul, God will give us stories to tell, stories of how God met us in our darkest moments of panic and doom.

He gives us stories to tell about how he lifts us up, gives us hope, brings peace to our hearts, and meets our needs. We tell others our stories not to point to us, but to point to God so that those to whom we minister will find their comfort in him too.

Where has God given you stories of suffering and comfort so that you can bring comfort to those around you who are suffering? So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

This passage is all about spiritual preparation. When you live with a here-and-now mentality, you want this life to be as comfortable, predictable, pleasurable, successful, and enjoyable as it can be.

All the hardship and loss we face are designed by God to prepare us for our eternal home. God is working through hardship to pry open our hands and loosen our hearts from our tight grip on the here and now. A young woman loses her husband in a motorbike accident, leaving her to raise her three children alone. We cringe at the horror of Auschwitz. We often search for hidden meaning contained within suffering itself, or we seek explanations from other places. The breadth of suffering in the world raises profound questions about the nature of God, and his involvement in human life.

If God is all good, all-powerful, and all loving, then why do the innocent suffer? Neither the Old Testament nor the New Testament provide complete answers to this question. But some answers are given, and these ideas can be explored. The Bible teaches that we suffer largely because of the fallen, broken, wounded, sinful nature of humanity. Human beings rebel against God and his holiness, righteousness, and justice.

And, human bodies and the creation are frail. But, in spite of this very real struggle, we are assured that God remains King. We are assured that when Christ returns all things will be eternally restored—and this includes the end of all suffering and evil. In this life, we experience suffering and pain. In a world addicted to the shiny, successful, eye-catching, and exponentially-growing, the kingdom of God is almost embarrassingly ordinary.

The sun continues to beat down on people, scorching them and causing them to suffer. Even as the sun beats down, in that very same moment, the kingdom of God provides rest and shade and food. It provides healing and hope and new life in the midst of pain and suffering. The Old Testament book of Job is one source that Christians and Jews turn to for explanations to human suffering and pain. Job is a stunning ancient text.

It helps us engage with both the conceptual problems of suffering and the human, interpersonal, gut-level experiences. The misery of innocent, defenseless, and good people is a very real dilemma. Job is a righteous man who lives a blameless and upright life; fearing God and shunning evil. In spite of this, he suffers greatly. He looses livestock, friends, property, health, and his sons and daughters.

One calamity is added to the next. But Job questioned this theology when his experience seemed in blatant contradiction to its proposals and convictions. Why do some people embrace the doctrine of divine retribution, in order to explain pain and suffering?

The book of Job denies the doctrine of divine retribution. Yet, it contradicts the idea that this is always the case. Righteous and innocent people may suffer deeply in every sphere of life physical, social, spiritual, and emotional. The author upholds the goodness of both God and Job. But human will, the laws of nature, human sin, and the brokenness of the world all combine to contribute to the suffering of the innocent; exculpating God and the sufferer from responsibility.

There is no clear answer to the question of human suffering in the book of Job. We learn from Job that God is not predictable, and it is completely acceptable to question God when we are in pain. But no thorough explanation to human misery is provided nor attempted in the book. The problem of suffering as distinct from the experience of suffering is a problem for the monotheist only.

For the monotheist, misery has a moral or ethical quality attached to it. It is seen as bad, wrong, and unjust, and it need to be reconciled with our understanding of the one good God. But the book of Job, to the frustration of many monotheists, is not a theodicy. A theodicy is an attempt to justify the ways of God to human beings or an attempt to vindicate divine providence in the face of evil and suffering. Theodicies strive to resolve the problem of evil and suffering for a theological system.

They seek to demonstrate that God is omnipotent, all-loving, and just—despite the existence of misery and evil. The book is about his wrestle with the meaning of human misery.

At the same time, Job rejects the doctrine of corruption everything suffers because everything is corrupt. And it rejects the stoic idea that we are required to transcend our misfortunes in this life and receive our reward in the next. In the book of Job, theodicies are at best represented as the impetuous young Elihu, who is full of hot air.

It provides no theological foundations for establishing a modern theodicy. That is not the purpose of this ancient drama.

In the book, Job is never condemned for questioning God. In desperate anguish he gropes for answers in the dark abyss of his misery. He laments his bitter feelings and grievous calamities. He cries to God for a response. Job questions God vigorously—not in a logical or consistent manner, but in one motivated by grief and inner turmoil. In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the life breath of all humankind.

She shared her experiences and hopes for social and political stability as a Coptic Christian in her country, Egypt. She explained that Christianity has deep roots in the history of Egypt. Therefore the recent developments and turmoil affecting Egyptians are most unfortunate.

Tawfik added that many Egyptians have seen their loved ones killed, injured, arrested or tortured, with Coptic Christians among them. Coptic churches have been attacked, and the property of Christians has has been destroyed, and relatives have been killed.

For Tawfik, the turmoil for Christians in Egypt began when they woke up to the news of an atrocious bombing of the Alexandria Church in The bombing resulted in killings of more than twenty people, according to media reports.

By committing such acts, the terrorists violate the Islamic rules. Shortly after, on 25 January in , both Christians and Muslims rushed together to the streets demanding their right to dignified life, freedom and social justice.