JOHN SHIRK – Today’s Q and A Segment explores the question, “Why does God allow suffering in the world?”

This is a big question that deserves some attention, because so many people ask it out loud or ponder it in their hearts.

Suffering started in the world after sin entered the human race. This was the result of a choice that Adam and Eve made, which led to the reality of physical death, conflict between people, pain during child birth, frustration from work, and shame, to name a few. God made Adam and Eve with the dignity to have the freedom to make choices. When they disregarded God’s Word and ate from the forbidden fruit, pain and suffering followed.

Ever since, our world has been broken. We live with the consequences of Adam and Eve’s decision.

The good news is that God had a plan to redeem us from the curse of sin. He sent Jesus, who suffered extreme pain at the cross, and then rose from the dead. He can sympathize with our pain, and He knows how to take us beyond it. He is preparing a place for His followers in heaven, where tears, pain, sin and death will not be found.

When it comes to suffering, there are no easy answers, but the presence of suffering calls for the compassion of Christ to be expressed through His followers in the Year of Exploration.

John Shirk

john@wjtl.com