The Paradox of Pain

We all have pain, it is one of the most inevitable facts of life. But we were created by a God who loves us and who wants to bring us joy. If God is omnipotent and all powerful as we believe, then why do we all suffer every day? Why is there tragedy and hardship in all our lives? In his talk Kreeft even says that this has been cited as one of, if not the biggest argument against Christianity. It is something that I think all of us have struggled with at one point or another. Lewis' book, "The Problem of Pain" tries to answer how a God who is all powerful and fully good can allow pain and suffering to be present in the world.

One of the first things that Lewis talks about is that a lot of pain comes from human beings. Where fallen creatures live together there is bound to be conflict. Humans have created weapons, have fought each other, lied, cheated and caused pain to others. God does not cause this pain.

However, what about the other forms of pain in our life? Natural disasters, It seems funny at first to think that God allows pain in our lives. Perhaps funny isn't a strong enough word. Backwards, paradoxical, wrong even. But Lewis' explains why pain can be a good thing in our lives. When our lives are going well, aren't we fully content with our situation. We want for nothing. The problem with this is, that we don't want for God. We are usually consumed with our present situation and think to ourselves that we are content with what we have. Friends, money--later in life, our own family, a house. We acquire small things and we think they are enough to keep us happy. We look for anything and everything to find happiness in. Everything except for God. But think about when a tragedy occurs, we turn again to God. When life is difficult we turn to prayer, to God's comfort.

Lewis believes that God uses pain as a way to remind us to turn to Him. God is not proud. If He were, He would only accept us if we turned to Him with pure intentions. But as Lewis says, God "stoops to conquer." He is willing to meet us anyway He can.
So perhaps pain and suffering in our lives is not a paradox against the existence of God. Maybe God uses pain so that we realize the finitude of the things we search for, so that we realized we need something bigger than ourselves. We live in a fallen, broken world, and we are searching for answers. God is trying to help us look for Him. We will always fall short, but through God's grace, we still find forgiveness and redemption.