God’s presence in suffering


Why do bad things happen? My most simple response: I have no idea. I resonate with the debate: how can an all knowing God permit evil? How can an all-loving God allow it? How can an all-powerful God not intervene? A seminarian friend of mine suggested one has to get rid of one of the omni’s (omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent) for this debate to be reconciled.

I do not claim the ability or the desire to fully comprehend God. And so I wrestle with what I can see and know, and I accept the inner call to do something about the suffering I see.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

What is your view? How do you reconcile the suffering in the world? What is your understanding of why bad things happen?

BronwenBMK
 Managing Editor
& Creative Director

Daily Inspiration

"When married partners love each other tenderly, they think of eternity in regard to the marriage covenant, and not at all of its being terminated by death."

Married Love 216.4