Why Suffering?

In the sermon on Sunday, I will be addressing the questions: Why is there suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people. I thought you might like a preview.

Sometimes people think that bad things happen to them because God is punishing them. That’s the perspective of the disciples in the story from John 9 about Jesus healing a blind man. Sometimes people say if you’re suffering it means you don’t have enough faith. You’re not praying enough or you just don’t understand the ways of God. Sometimes people say it must be because God is trying to teach us a lesson or that suffering is God’s will, part of some pre-determined plan. 

I don’t believe any of this. 

I think suffering just is. It is part of the human condition. Bad things just happen. Sometimes unspeakably bad things happen. We can’t get away from pain and suffering because they just are. They are a part of living in these mortal bodies, and they are part of living mortal, fallible lives that are prone to brokenness. Pain and suffering just are. 

“Why is there suffering?” and “Why do bad things happen to good people?” are questions that don’t get us anywhere. Better questions are: Where is God when we are suffering? and What do we do with our suffering once we are on the other side of the pain?

We will explore these questions Sunday.

I’ll see you then.

Jennie

Worship at 10:00 a.m.
On-site at 302 South Main Street       Eureka, Illinois
Online at eurekachristian.org/worship-online or facebook.com/eurekacc/live