We heard on the news this week that there is a trailer park in Valrico that is still flooded. The waters from Helene and Milton have still not receded. There are thousands who have lost their homes in the last month from consecutive hurricanes. There is also a fear that the insurance companies will not pay out for these hurricanes since word has gotten out that people suffering from Hurricane Debbie in June still have not received any help. The people of Florida are suffering and there are plenty of folks who do not believe in God because of these types of events.
How could a good and loving God allow this type of devastation to the people of Florida?
One thing I know from my time in seminary is that there is no good answer to these questions. It is called the problem of evil and while people attempt to give answers, they rarely are satisfying, and they certainly don’t convince someone to start believing in a loving God. So, here are some thoughts for the person who already believes in God but finds themselves without words when hard questions about the problem of evil are thrust at them.
We serve a God that is unlike the gods of other faiths. We serve a God who choose to suffer with us and understand us so that we could be joined with Him in our understanding of what life as a human here on earth is like. We serve a God that gets us and knows how we feel. We serve a God that grieves with us when we grieve and comforts us when we are at the end of our rope. Unfortunately, God does not always spare us pain and struggle.
Yet He does join us in our painful moments and understands us when we despair. He also set aside his divine privilege and hung on a cross suffering unbearable pain, and even experienced the agony of death. There seems to be no other reason for that sacrifice other than His deep and abiding love for us. No, He does not always spare us from suffering, but He always loves us, and we know He gets what we are feeling in our saddest moments. One could even argue that God empathizes with us, knowing exactly what we feel because He too knows what it is to be human. While that might not convince someone to believe and put their trust in God, it does help the believer when we are the one suffering.
The devastation Florida has experienced makes no sense, and there is no defense of God in that He allowed it to happen. Just know, He is here with us and among us and He knows the weariness and sadness we are feeling. He knows the worries we have about insurance. He knows we are people who are grieving much loss right now. And He sits with us in our pain, and He encourages us and reminds us that we are never alone. In all honestly, sometimes it is in these spaces that we can feel the closest and most encouraged by our God.
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