Introduction

The following UNIT assumes:

1. That God has destined human beings for eternal life (see UNITs B&C), that God is unconditional love (see UNIT J), and therefore, that God destines all of us for eternal life in His unconditional love.

2. In view of this, one might ask the question, “Why would a loving God have allowed suffering to occur?”

As will be seen, there are several reasons why God would allow suffering to occur in the world, but if God is unconditional love, then all of them would have to be linked to the advancement of love. Thus, if God allows human beings to cause suffering to one another, He does so for reasons of advancing the free appropriation of love; and if God created an imperfect world with natural laws which indirectly cause suffering (see UNIT L), He would have done so for the same reason. In this view, God does not directly cause suffering (except to impede those headed toward imminent self-destruction), and if He allows suffering, He does so to advance love and to strengthen His invitation to eternal unconditional love.

Well, then, if God does not directly cause suffering (except to impede those headed toward imminent self-destruction), and is therefore only an indirect cause of suffering, what or who are the true direct causes of suffering? There are two major sources beyond ourselves:

1. Other human beings (individuals or groups – e.g., Joe causes suffering to Mary, or the Nazi party causes suffering to Jewish people); and

2. Nature (e.g., tsunamis, earthquakes, draught, disease, old age, etc.).

There are many nuances and combinations of these two sources of suffering. For example, a preventable disease such as leprosy (a natural cause) is not prevented or delimited by a particular country in order that tax money can be used to incite a new war (a human cause); or a tsunami (a natural cause) hits a particular country, but the country next to it decides not to use easily accessible resources to help because the victims are thought to be inferior and undeserving (a human cause). Many forms of psychological suffering are attributable to such combinations. For example, a person might feel depression because of a chemical imbalance (a natural cause), which causes him to be marginalized by people who are fearful of his peculiar conduct (a human cause), which, in turn, exacerbates his depression and its physical symptoms.

I will treat the first source of suffering in UNIT K and the second in UNIT L. Before proceeding to these two sources, it may prove helpful to review the overriding principle indicated in the last UNIT, namely, that God is unconditional love. For if God is unconditional love, then it would seem that He would not want anyone to suffer. Indeed, it would seem that God should be likened to the most compassionate and affectionate of parents who would gladly suffer in the place of his/her child, but realizes that this child must make her own decisions and must deal with the challenges of life as a free human agent. It seems that an unconditionally loving God would suffer with everyone who suffers, and would redeem every scintilla of suffering through His providence for all eternity. It seems that an unconditionally loving God would allow suffering to occur if it could lead to our choice of a more authentic love and life which could last for eternity. The key thing to remember is that God has an eternal perspective, and if the previous UNIT is correct, then He also has an unconditionally loving perspective. Thus, we will want to look for answers to our suffering which ultimately to an eternity of unconditional, authentic love.

If the above conclusions are at least partially valid, then all suffering has some potential to lead to eternal and unconditional love, and it should not be viewed as a complete negative. Suffering may last for a while, but if we try to cooperate with God’s loving intention, it can be turned into love, and that love will last for all eternity. Even incredible tragedies, like the death of a child, may not be ultimately and completely tragic, for if we cooperate with God’s loving (long term) plan, the initial tragedy and loss can become an instrument of transformation and redemption (and furthermore, the child would be in God’s eternally loving arms). In this view (belief in a loving God), God feels the grief of the loving parents who miss their beloved, and He will feel that grief for as long as the parents experience it; but God simultaneously bestows unconditional and eternal love and fulfillment on the child whose loss is the cause of that grief.

In this view, suffering is complex. It includes the genuine experience of deep grief at premature loss. It also includes an experience of faith or hope that God is already bestowing unconditional love upon this child. It also includes an experience of trust that one will be reunited with that child in the eternity of God’s unconditional love. Finally, it includes a journey – a journey with a loving God to find meaning in the tragedy. Perhaps this journey may lead to a greater sense of contribution, to a deepened sense of empathy, humility, and compassion for others and even to a sense of greater trust in God (see Levels Three and Four of Purpose in Life in UNIT A).

This complex phenomenon will undoubtedly lead to complex emotional states. The important point to remember is that an unconditionally loving God would expect us to feel all these emotions in all of their complexity throughout a prolonged period of grieving. It is therefore important for us not to let one feeling become more important or authentic than another so that the “more authentic one” mitigates or cancels the “less authentic one.” We need to experience “grief – profound loss – hope in unconditional love – hope in eternal reuniting – peace beyond all understanding” all at once, in all its complexity, unmitigated, until Unconditional Love can make transparent sense of it all. This is an incredibly hard thing to do; yet it is a path to the transformation of suffering into love, and therefore a path into the horizon of Unconditional Love’s eternity.

I present the above, because I am concerned that the reader might think that the forthcoming presentation about why God might permit suffering is a bit too philosophical, too clinical, too detached from the real emotion and sadness of suffering. This is not my intention. I do not want to whitewash the true pathos of suffering or present an overly clinical view of it. My intention is only to give a sense of the logical parameters surrounding a loving God’s choice to allow suffering in the world, and in so doing to help the reader clarify his or her thinking, avoid needless pain (arising out of thoughts of God’s heartlessness or abandonment), and to obtain optimal benefit and guidance in finding eternal love through suffering.