i already forget how i used to feel about you

had an interesting discussion in Sunday School today about God and suffering. We were talking about the tsunami and why God would allow men to suffer. What we don't realise is that many a time, our sufferings are brought on ourselves. When God created the world, when there was just Adam and Eve, the world was perfect. there were no such things as natural disasters. The disasters came upon men only as punishment, as warnings etc.. I don't think God had ever intended for men to suffer. If men did not fall, the world would still be as perfect as then. Of course there were many arguments about trials and tribulations. Some said that God gives us problems to train us up, to discipline us and to mould us into better beings. Others say our problems are self-inflicted.



I believe that both reasons are valid. But most of all, when we say that God is unfair, we forget that God never said He is fair. He only promised He would be just. Equality is but a man-made concept. When God allowed Jacob to snatch Esau's birth right, was that fair? The whole idea of birth rights itself is not a fair concept. It is not based on meritocracy as we are all so used to.



God is not concerned about fairness because he does not compare us with each other. It is us who compare. We only feel upset at suffering because we compare ourselves to other people and feel worse off. If everyone suffered from cancer at age 10, if everyone was born with only one arm, would we be angry at God? Of course not. Trials gets us down because we compare ourselves and feel sorry for ourselves. But God does not see it this way. He doesn't care whether we are intelligent or if we are beautiful. These things don't matter. It's much like a mother giving 2 m&ms to her children. one child gets a red one, the other a blue one. the one with the blue one may complain "no fair, he gets the red one". but to the mother, these things DON'T matter. we may laugh at this scenario but aren't we like that so many times? we get upset and jealous at things that don't really matter.



Similarly, when God sends trials and tribulations our way, we are upset because our vision is so myopic and we focus on the things that really don't matter in the big picture. The fact that we are sick or less intelligent than others, the fact that we have lost a job or a loved one. These things may seem really important to us but really, maybe the trick is to stop focusing on what you don't have that others have; to see that God is so much bigger than we are, we are just children fussing over the colour of m&ms.



When Job asked God why God allowed him to suffer like that, God simply replied that He is God and He is holy. Who are we to challenge him? Who are we to doubt his sovereignty? When we say we submit it all to him, do we honestly and truly mean it?



More importantly, remember that God understands what we go through. Jesus has felt the most intense feelings, he has gone through that and he understands. Sometimes we feel so lonely and so hopeless at our situation. We feel abandoned and that no one loves us etc. But Jesus went through all that. God the Father sent Jesus down to die for us. He sacrificed His Son to die for us. Yet Jesus' sacrifices and love for us were met with ungratefulness. For all that He has done, we crucify Him. And at the very last moment, before He breathes His last, He cries out to the Father "why have you forsaken me?" can you imagine that intense loneliness he must have felt on the cross at that very instant? The feeling of being so completely alone? At least when we pray we know that Jesus understands and He can identify. What have we gone through that Jesus has not? What feelings of desperation have we had that He cannot understand?



Who says Sunday School is for kids only?