Pain

A good God would want us to be happy. Happiness is a life lived without pain. An all powerful God would be able to provide us with a life without pain. There is pain in life therefore God is either not good or not all powerful.

What is a life lived without pain? Certainly it is a life without correction or punishment. It is a life where we may do what we desire to do without any consequence: we may get drunk without a hangover, have sex without disease, and break the law without fine or jail time. We say if God was able and really loved us we would have this type of a life. Maybe our concept of love needs changing.

Christ said that bastard kids are spoiled or left alone and that kids that are loved are corrected. It is people we care nothing about that we demand happiness on any terms. With friend and lovers we are exacting. We would rather see them suffer much than be happy in contemptible and estranging modes. I know no parent who would prefer their child went through a period of pain and became a generous and kind person rather than remain a greedy, vengeful, impatient, selfish, but happy person. In the same way God gives us endless trouble because He loves us. When we ask that God leaves us alone we ask for less love, not more.

Love wants the best and suffering has the ability to purify, therefore love accepts suffering. God’s goal is that we become His children—that we become objects in which the Divine love may rest well pleased. In our better moments we agree with this truth. We don’t want God to be content with our sins any more than a beggar or whore that the king wants to marry would want the king to be content with her poverty or filth. In our better moments we want to suffer and be made pure for the behalf of our beloved.

The Pantheist’s God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you. Our God is a consuming fire. At times we will be burnt, but our God is something real, our God is reality. When we want a God who will leave us alone we want a God that is less real and less personal. We want more of ourselves and we curse the interference that a real God brings our quest for self-satisfaction.

In the end we all obey God. If we disobey proper laws we will be bound by lower laws: e.g. if you disobey the law of prudence and walk too quickly only slippery pavement you will find yourself suddenly obeying the law of gravitation. In the end we all do God’s will. Judas and John both carried out God’s will but there was a great difference in the way which they did this.

We need God, but all too often we will turn to God as a last resort. God, in His mercy, often takes away all our other options leaving Himself as the last resort. It is poor to treat God as the last lifeboat on the sinking ship of life, but God, in His humility allows us to come to Him even on those terms.

The slowest descent into Hell is a gradual one. Our greatest danger is falling into such minor sins that we fail to recognize their sinfulness. We may not murder, but Satan need not tempt us to murder if impatience will do the trick. That is why in the Gospels Christ is hardest on the self-righteous and easiest on the prostitutes. The former may find satisfaction in this life without God while the latter most certainly will not. The latter is filled with pain and pain is often God’s merciful reminder that not all is well.

There is a difference between forgiveness and condoning. To condone an evil is to ignore it. To forgive requires a man to admit his fault—the man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness. The ancient pagan and Jew alike knew their sin and their need for forgiveness. Man today knows of no such need; under the influence of humanism man today thinks he is good and that any evil he may do is caused by his environment or genetics—whatever causes him to do evil it is certainly not his fault. We find ourselves in the unenviable position of having to preach the dreadful prognosis before we may share the most glorious cure. A doctor may be able to perform a life saving operation, but you won’t consent to it if you don’t think you are sick and in need of it. In the same way Christ brings salvation to sinners, but sinners won’t accept it before they are made aware of their sin.

Pain is a symptom of our disease. True happiness lies in God alone. It would be unmerciful for God to allow us to think we could find happiness without Him. Pain is a constant reminder that we cannot.