Seeking Out the Pain

​God isn't done with us. But he is done with intervening directly in the world.

Where is the pain in the world right now?  Or perhaps a better question is: where is God in the midst of all the pain we see in the world.

Identifying the points of pain isn’t difficult.  In fact, the suffering in the world is all too apparent and found in too many places.

•  Our mother earth is lashing out through tornados, hurricanes, volcanos, torrential rain, earthquakes, tsunamis, and wildfires as she is wrenching from the effects of climate change.
• The Syrian civil war has created a refugee crisis in Europe bringing millions of homeless and desperate families into bordering countries which have been ill equipped to handle such an influx.
• Families and entire communities are suffering from the effects of drug addiction and overdose deaths which have been rising at alarming rates.
• Women and children are in pain as they are preyed upon in Central American countries, causing a stream of refugees moving north to Mexico and America.
• Families are in pain as over three-thousand children were taken from their parents at the American border and placed in camps.  As of this writing, there are still more than 500 children who have not been reunited with their families.

I could certainly go on.  I haven’t mentioned the effects of gun violence, poverty, racism, sexism, hunger, homelessness, sex trafficking, poor education, economic dislocation, income inequality, greed and too much more.  But this post isn’t intended to be a litany of woes in the world. 

What I really want to explore is the question of where is God in light of all the suffering.

It is not uncommon to hear people proclaim that God must have a plan and as such the suffering we see must be a part of that plan.  Can that really be true?  I was raised in a very loving family and at no time did my parents deliberately cause me suffering in order to teach me a lesson.  My father and mother – who were fallible – could never bring themselves to use suffering as a teaching tool.  If my fallible parents were incapable of such actions, I have to believe that the idea is alien to the Divine, as well.

In short, I don’t believe that pain and suffering is part of God’s plan.

So, if it is not part of God’s plan, is it the result of an active agent of evil in the world?  Is the devil preying on people in order to drive us from the arms of God?  As I’ve written before, I don’t believe in the devil.  Evil, I believe, is the result of people closing off their hearts to God and following the dictates of their own ego.
 
And so the question remains: where is God in all of this?  I believe he is tapping us on the shoulder.

A good friend and Baptist preacher once told me that he believes God has finished his work in the world.  I looked at him kind of puzzled – because after all – this was a prominent Baptist preacher telling me that God was done with us.  He explained that God isn’t done with us – but he is done with intervening directly in the world.  I agree.

As a Quaker, I believe there is “that of God” in each of us; that my unique and eternal soul is linked directly to the Divine.  I strive to carve out time each day to sit in stillness; to be in communion with the part of the Divine that is within me.  I don’t pretend that God talks to me.  Hearing God talk to me isn’t what sitting in stillness is all about. 

I have come to believe that the time I sit in stillness is the time I am preparing myself to hear the voice of God.  It is rare that I feel I have heard God from out of the stillness.  More typically, as I go about my day, I will hear a thought.  It will often be just a quiet idea that pops into my head.  But it will be one that comes with a sense of certainty; a sense that it is a leading from the Divine.  And then I know I must act on that leading.  God tapped me on the shoulder and nudged me to act on his behalf.

There is a video circulating on social media by a business coach named Bill Hart.  In the 2.5 minute video, Hart describes an encounter he had with a woman in a restaurant as a result of his sense that he was called by God.  I encourage you to watch it.  In this video, Hart aptly describes how a leading from God appears and what joy is derived from acting on it.

And so, back to the original question:  where is God in all of the pain and suffering in the world?  He is calling us to listen and to act.  He is urging us to seek out the pain in the same way that a sunflower seeks out the sun and to minister to those in need.  He calls us to listen for his voice – as it is there as surely is the sun at noon – and to act on it. 
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It is far too easy to curse God for allowing suffering to persist.  It is a bit harder to recognize that it is we who are continuing the suffering by ignoring the call of God.  After all, there are no acts of God without acts of people. ​