I Believe in God *Because* There is Death and Suffering

“If there is a God, he would not allow [such and such] to happen.”

That is what many of us are saying, or feel strongly inclined to say. It seems commonplace to interpret the world's tragedies and pains as a sign that we are alone, and that there is no God – or that if there is, he can't be a nice one. Who, we ask again and again, can support the idea of a loving Creator when Creation must starve in such loveless circumstances?

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The truth is, though, that once you finish your angry tirade and are done taking out your frustration on the object of blame, the dying and the suffering in the world will still be going on. Murder and disease will persist. Atheists will continue to help others in opposition to the divine, and Christians will continue to minister in service to the divine. Nothing will have changed.

Only once you have accepted the fact that death and suffering exist are you in a position to make any judgments about them. And when you do, you may see how counterproductive to the human dilemma the denial of a good God is.

When an atheist says God and suffering cannot both exist, they believe they are doing it on behalf of the human race. In truth, they are attacking what is humanity's chief hope – the belief in something beyond the bleak picture we now see.

We want to believe our pain is not in vain, and that one day joy will replace it. We want to believe the loved ones we lost are not lost forever. We want to believe death is not the end. For the person struggling with these issues, God can be the one who is the answer, not the enemy.

Why do the world's sorrows fail to break my faith? Simply put, they bolster my faith.

I believe in God because there is death and suffering;

because without God, death and suffering wouldn't make sense.

Unbelief scolds us and says, “People suffer and die and that's just the way of it. So suck it up and focus on what life you have.” Even if they had tried to sugar-coat it, the despair such a belief would cast on me would take away all my joy and hope.

But I choose not to think that way. I choose to put my faith in the reality of the empty tomb. I choose life in the face of death. I choose to believe in a heaven beyond the hell around us. I choose God.

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