Recently I've been asking myself the questions, "why do we have to hurt?" and "when does the healing start?" I thought I'd explore these questions in a more organized format than my brain! This is obviously an issue that deeply affects Christians, regardless of age, gender, nationality, social status, doctrinal beliefs, worship preferences, or denomination. In fact, I would argue that it affects all humans, regardless of all these factors, including even a belief or lack thereof in God. They still innately struggle with this problem of hurt. In my research on this topic I have found no limits to the type of people asking this question. I've search friends, acquaintances, strangers, the internet, the Scriptures, songs, and books. The common theme seems to be that all feel hurt and try to understand its purpose. If you Google "hurt" you will get about 133 million results in .28 seconds. That is significant, no matter who you are.
So, let's start out with some basics that need to be answered and understood before going any further in exploration. First, is God good? Second, is He really responsible for all that happens in our lives? In other words, is He all powerful? Does He know everything that has in the past, is now, and will ever happen to us? And how do we feel His love?
God is certainly good (Psalm 25:8). God is love...not only truly loves, but IS the very essence of love (1 John 4:8). God never changes, never shifts, never alters His person (Hebrews 13:8, Psalm 102:25-27). Since God is good and He is love, He cannot go against His own nature (since He never changes) and so cannot do anything that does not demonstrate His love and goodness. Following that line of logic, everything that God brings into our lives demonstrates His love and goodness! "Okay then," you say, "where does all this pain and suffering come from? Is God behind this?" Well, the answer to that question is not entirely simple. It's more of one of those "yes and no" situations.
On to the other questions: God's omnipotence and omniscience. From Genesis 18:14 to Revelation 19:6 our Lord is described in terms like "all powerful" and "almighty." Christ said in Luke 18:27 that "the things which are impossible with men are possible with God." So obviously things are never out of God's realm of influence or control. "Well then, is it possible that He simply doesn't know about it? Didn't see, hear, or know?" According to scripture, that's not remotely possible. God is absolutely aware of everything past, present, and perfectly future in His creation. He knows every conscious and unconscious and subconscious action, thought, emotion, even twitch that you or I make. He is PERSONALLY attuned to your thoughts and to mine, every moment of every day (Psalm 139:2-6). He knows everything about everyone, not just those who know Him back (Proverbs 15:3). Even the things that we wish were secret, that we desperately desire for no one to ever know or see, God sees, acknowledges, and takes account of (Hebrews 4:13). He not only knows what we do, He already knew we would do it before our conception (Psalm 139:16).
Clear yet? We can only conclude from the last two realities that He knows all of the things that will happen to us that will inevitably cause us hurt, ranging from mild discomfort to life-changing, piercing pain, and chooses not to exercise His power to change that "fate." That doesn't, on the surface, sound good or loving. But God is good and loving as we established earlier so there must be something else at work here. Want to know what it is? Me too. Let's dig deeper.
Keep an eye out for Part 2!
