The Problem with Suffering by Nelson Chamberlin

LA DONNA’S STROKE

When La Donna first suffered her stroke and was in the Intensive Care Unit of Riverview Hospital, I came home with human questions plaguing me. I know no one is perfect, but she is just about the closest thing to perfect that God has ever created. And I was talking to God about “Why her? She doesn’t deserve this!”

That first night home I picked up Nicky Gumbel’s book, “Searching Issues” and delved into the first chapter “Why Does God Allow Suffering?” I read all about suffering as a result of our own sin – suffering as a result of others’ sin – suffering as a result of a fallen world. But that wasn’t what I needed then.

And then I read his words on God is involved in our suffering. He wrote about a playlet, “The Long Silence” and that spoke eloquently to me. The playlet makes this point:

At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on a great plain before God’s throne.
Most shrank back from the brilliant light before them. But some groups near the front talked heatedly – not with cringing shame, but with belligerence.
“Can God judge us? How can he know about suffering?” snapped a young brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. “We endured terror … beatings …torture … death!”
In another group a young man lowered his collar. “What about this?” he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. “Lynched … for no crime but being black!”
In another crowd, a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes. “Why should I suffer?” she murmured. “It wasn’t my fault.”
Far out across the plain there were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering he permitted in his world. How lucky God was to live in heaven where all was sweetness and light, where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said.
So each of these groups sent for their leader, chosen because he had suffered the most. A Jew, a young black man, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the plain they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case. It was rather clever.
Before God could be qualified to be their judge, he must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth --- as a man!
“Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. Give him a work so difficult that even his family will think him out of his mind when he tries to do it. Let him be betrayed by his closest friends. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured.
“At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly alone. Then let him die. Let him die so that there can be no doubt that he died. Let there be a great host of witnesses to verify it.”
As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of approval went up from the throng of people assembled.
And when the last had finished pronouncing sentence, there was a long silence. No one uttered another word. No one moved. For suddenly all knew that God had already served his sentence.”

We are not alone in our pain. When we suffer, He suffers with us.