The Walters 5

I’ve been reading alot of heady philosophy for a summer class that I’m taking right now. Some of the reading deals with arguments making the case both for and against belief in God. A significant philosophical argument challenging belief in God is the problem of evil. It’s an honest and hard question: if God is all powerful and all good then why did He create a world in which evil occurs? I won’t explain all of the long winded arguments but here’s a quote that struck me. It deals with human suffering:

The world is not intended to be a paradise, but rather the scene of a history in which human personality may be formed towards the pattern of Christ. Men are not to be thought of on the analogy of animal pets, whose life is to be made as agreeable as possible, but rather on the analogy of human children, who are to grow to adulthood in an environment whose primary and overriding purpose is not immediate pleasure but the realizing of the most valuable potentialities of human personality. (Faith and Reason by Ron Nash)

In other words, God cares more about me becoming like Christ than He cares about me feeling happy. It comforts me to know that my Father loves me and knows what’s best for me. Sometimes that might include pain and suffering so that I might grow, mature, and love Him more than I love the world. Also, my Savior suffered more than I ever will so Jesus can identify with pain and help me through my own (Heb. 4:15-16).