Evil, Sin & Suffering

We deal with evil, sin & suffering every day of our lives.  Some of us have been exposed to the most terrible evils and sin is certainly a part of all of our histories.  And I think I have more questions than I have answers.  When I consider this topic my mind is drawn to 2 Corinthians 1:3-11.  If you don't know this passage you need to click this link and read it for yourself, especially verse 3 where God is called "the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort".  As you read on Paul says that through Christ our comfort towards one another "overflows".  But in order to have a comfort that overflows I must also participate in suffering (an experience I don't like to claim).  If I move ahead in this letter of Paul I begin to see this progression of metaphors.  In chapter 2 he says we are the "aroma of Christ".  I think the idea of "the comfort that overflows" is the theme that follows through here.  Then he goes into chapter 3 and says we are a letter written on the heart.  Its something others who are going through suffering want to read because how I respond to suffering is more important than anything else.  Chapter 4 recalls how I am a vessel or jar and the litany of stress that I experience and how God can shine through that.

But chapter 5 he changes the metaphor again.  Now we're a tent.  "We know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.  Meanwhile we groan..." It's hard to get past those words - meanwhile we groan.  It's part of the deal.  Paul emphasizes here that we're going to groan and suffer in life and even adds that God made us for this very purpose so that "what is mortal may be swallowed up by life".

I've been contemplating this subject a lot lately.  As a counselor, I am working with some people who are going through some issues that seem unbearable.  As a dad, I'm watching my children grow up so fast and I realize how few answers I have for them to answer the many questions they have about sin, suffering, and evil.  I'm witnessing my Grandmother - who has always been such a vital connection in my life - decline without dignity.  My dad just had quadruple bypass surgery.  My wife sometimes cannot stand because her back hurts so intensely.  And I am so inadequate, so often counterproductive in helping the people I care for the most.

One of the things that I have noticed as I reflect on the problem of suffering is that I am quick to attribute the providence of God to the things that are good in my life - the stuff that prevents my suffering; the stuff that relieves my suffering.  For instance, my dad's surgery was preceeded by the smallest of symptoms.  Normally he ignores this sort of stuff, he's physically fit, he's not a complainer but this time he listened to his body and it turned out to be "just at the right time."  What an amazing coincidence some would say.  God's definite intervention would say others.  It was definately a phenomenal thing to catch these major blockages before something dreadful occured.

But then I remember a scene when I first moved to this corner of the universe.  Not long after I got to Dothan, a sweet lady who attended our church, Martha Mitchell, died in an auto accident.  I'll never forget arriving at the hospital that day and finding one of our shepherds holding a man sobbing like a baby.  That man was Huey, her husband.  Huey had blood smeared on his face where he must have been leaning in close to his wife as she died on that gurney in the emergency room.  It was a man in the deepest of pain; a man whom I had never met before but for whom I had the deepest feelings of compassion.  More than that I felt a great sense of admiration for Doug - one of my shepherds - who stood holding Huey like his own son.  But it's a moments like this that I'm left wondering at why God's providence is so wonderful for some and then seems so distant from others.

I can't put it out of my mind.  It's easy to attribute God's providence to the good but think of all those who have not had the "providential" care that we might experience.  My wife comes home the other night  and tells me about a mother who lost her baby that day.  Traci, my wife, delivers babies and sometimes the worst possible scenario occurs.  It will make your heart ache to hear a nurse describing how she holds a baby in her hands that is "not viable" and for which no extraordinary measures will suffice.  It is born too early.  It cannot live even with the most expensive neo-natal ICU care.  It will die choking for its breath.  No providence.

I think we have to be so careful here.  As one who has witnessed my own dad escape death by what seems providential intervention; I really struggle with why God doesn't intervene elsewhere.  And I've come to a conclusion.  Unless we understand that God's providence is involved in both the good and the bad that comes in our life, we don't have a proper understanding of where God is coming from.

Here's what I mean.  In that passage in 2 Corinthians 5, Paul says that God has made us for this purpose - what purpose? - to groan!!  So that we can be swallowed up by life.  What is he saying.  I think he's saying that in order to make sense of suffering we can't just look at the cross.  That is we can't just look backwards.  We've got to look ahead with hope in what He is doing and will do.  Here's how God deals with it.  He says that he, "has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

You see, the mystery lies in what is to come.  And that's why we can't solve this mystery so easily.  I do know this.  God allowed me to witness something awesome with that man I had never known - Huey Mitchell.  The day I met him Huey was far away from God.  But instead of driving him into the darkness, the death of his beloved wife drew him again into relationship with God.  He saw the hope that God gave and felt the love of his family.  Huey died only a couple of years later.  He had cancer and battled it to the end but did it all the way holding onto the hand of God.  I beleive he knew what it meant when Paul said God gives us the Spirit as a guarantee.

LOVE IS GOING TO WIN.  Jesus' resurrection is a promise that evil will not triumph forever.  Hope knows that in the final chapter that only God will make things right in this world.  If you are going through a valley right now.  Hang on because we can be confident that God will make things right, if not in this body certainly the next. 

This is my only comfort.  I take no comfort in the belief that God is hurting someone or judging someone.  I take comfort in the fact that God is going to make it right!!!

A Mind That Won't Quit?

As an individual who has lived with anxiety I can relate to people who struggle with repeated doubts - Did I leave my door unlocked? - a need to have things in a particular order - Isn't it a law that the toilet paper is supposed to unroll from the top and not the bottom? - or even unwanted imagry - I hate billboards and checkout line tabloids. Enough said.  We all struggle with these things from time to time.  Maybe you don't struggle with them to the point of needing professional help.  But there are few things as rewarding in my work with people as helping an individual cope and overcome these obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

How common is this problem.  Clinically speaking, about 1 in 40 people in the US have a diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).  The interesting thing is that it often goes undiagnosed for a long time.  The average person may see 3 or 4 professionals and go undiagnosed for as long as 7 years.  That's about 2-3% of our population.

So what's the difference between a person who is a perfectionist and someone who has an actual diagnosis of OCD?  True obsessions in the clinical sense are unwanted thoughts or images that just torment the individual.  It's not being obsessed with work or obsessed with football.  Instead it is a thought or image that just "comes out of nowhere to torment you.  Usually it causes enormous anxiety.  The second component of this disorder is compulsive behavior.  These are things one might do in response to their obsessive thoughts.  Some people may hate the thought of coming in contact with germs or dirt.  An obsessive-compulsive person is driven to avoid contact with these things and may compulsively wash their hands or avoid normal encounters with people to prevent "contamination".

With Christians I see people who obsess with whether or not they are actually saved or whether they may have committed the unpardonable sin.  For Christians there seems to be a lot of misinformation including attributing this problem to the wrong cause.

There is certainly no doubt among professionals that this is a biological issue.  Research shows that it is a problem that is about 60% genetic.  There's lots of research in this area among Christian and secular psychologists to back this claim.  Abnormalities in the basal ganglia part of the brain and seratonin imbalance are clinically proven causes of this disorder.  Stress exacerbates this problem but at the core is a neurological problem that needs some medical attention.

The good news is that there is help for this problem and most people (90% or better) respond to treatment with medications like SSRI's and cognitive behavioral therapy.  If this is a struggle you are experiencing give me a call or check with a licensed Chrisitian counelor in your area.