God is not the cause of pain or evil, but a constant source of love, strength, and hope amid a broken world.
Over the past year, I have grown immensely in my relationship with the Lord. Although I have not had a good year according to the world's standards, I have learned many wonderful things. Last year, I went through one of the worst depressive episodes I have ever gone through, and I was diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune illness. I have struggled with depression for most of my life. Therefore, I was able to work through the episode day by day. However, being diagnosed with an autoimmune illness that could never be cured was a hard pill to swallow.
The specialist doctor said autoimmune illnesses are usually genetic, meaning they run in families. However, nobody in my family has an autoimmune disease. This alone made me feel even more isolated. Nobody understood what I was going through or what I continue to go through because unless you have this illness yourself, it is impossible to know how it fully impacts your daily life. It is a physical problem, but it is also a mental strain to deal with every day, alongside the worry, fears, and stress that come with an illness.
God is Not the Author of Evil
I haven't shared much information about my autoimmune illness with anyone, except for those I'm closest to. I have learned about the dangers of sharing personal information with people you consider friends, and they only use it to put you down and invalidate your struggles. As much as I would like to say other people do have your best interests at heart, most of them do not. Sadly, most are only concerned with their own life and world.
Therefore, I have found great solace in the Lord. While I was mad at Him at first, I learned that He is not the one who caused me to develop this autoimmune illness, just as He wasn't the one who caused me to develop depression, anxiety, OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), or anorexia. All diseases are a result of the fall of humankind, and God never intended for us to suffer from any of these things. He wanted us to live in perfect harmony with Him, and we would be healthy, live forever, and never die.
Unfortunately, this was broken due to humankind’s fall, and now we must live in a fallen world. The fallen world and the sin within it cause illness, pain, and death. In truth, this was the ramifications of humankind's fall. Even though none of us was there when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and disobeyed God, we all freely sinned (Romans 3:23). This means we are all responsible and have all chosen to sin with our free will.
God gave us free Will, and with it, we have the choice of whether we will use it for good or for evil. Many people across the world use their free will for evil, which is why we have tragedies such as murders, assaults, and crimes. None of these things is God’s fault. Instead, they are humankind’s fault because individuals are the ones who are choosing to make these evil decisions.
Since God loves us beyond measure, there is no reason to view Him as the author of evil in the world. This very idea goes against what the Bible teaches. He is loving, caring, and compassionate (Romans 8:37-39; Psalm 34:18; Psalm 145:8-9). His love and kindness are blessings that will be with us forever.
Opening Up to God Again
As I mentioned, in the early days of my diagnosis, I shut God out. However, through the pain, I learned that God doesn’t cause these terrible things to happen. Instead, sinful humankind is the ones who cause our suffering, and sin is also always at work. If sin weren’t in the world, we wouldn’t have death, illness, or pain. Praise be to the Lord that one day He will eradicate sin and we will go to live with Him in the New Heaven and New Earth, where there will be no more crying, illnesses, or death (Revelation 21:4).
Once I could understand God’s loving nature and His kindness, I could grasp the truth entirely. God is not present only in the good times. Sadly, most of us miss Him in the good times and don’t even think about Him. However, when we are in pain and going through the darkness, we see His brightness all the more. His compassion and mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).
Due to learning these lessons over the past year, I have been able to see the world in a new light. The horrific things we see on the news were not “approved” by God before they came into being. For example, God didn’t approve for a tsunami to hit a certain area of the world, for a hurricane to destroy entire cities, or for a school to have a massive shooting. To say this is to charge God with wrongdoing and evil. However, as it is, God is the exact opposite of evil (1 John 1:5).
Learning From the Pain
Therefore, we cannot say everything works out the way God wants it to because it’s false. If things worked out how God wanted them to, we wouldn’t have this discussion today. We would be with Him in Heaven, freed of suffering, pain, or death. As one can see, we need to understand that many things happen in this world that God does not want. The incurable illness you are facing, the divorce you are facing, or the death of a loved one you are facing, are not God’s doing.
Instead, it is the doing of a sinful world that has fallen. As believers, we can look forward to the future while still understanding the present time. Life will not work out exactly as we hoped it would because of sin being in the world. Nothing will always work in our favor, nor will we always be happy. We will cry, we will scream, and we will sit in silence, holding on to our pain.
Our pain isn’t some trophy, but it can help us begin to move forward again. Sometimes we must go through a difficult time before we can see the truth of the light. The Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are always with us, never against us (Romans 8:31). Since this is true, we can face any trouble in this life with God’s help. There will be times when we are knocked to the ground, but there will be other times when we rise above it.
Until now, we must continue to follow God and lean into Him. When trouble and hardships come our way, we don’t need to be quick to blame Him because He is not the guilty party. The evil, sinful world is the guilty party. One day, this world will be destroyed, and we will see restoration like never before. The beautiful promise of eternal life with God is enough to tell us that He loves us beyond measure.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/fizkes
