I've spoken to quite a few friends recently who have gone through quite a bit of turmoil. One of the first things people ask me is: "you are a Christian, if God really exists, why do bad things happen?" Before I begin, I want to say something: I am not trying to offend anyone here. Below is just my own opinion. If I come off as being insensitive, please forgive me.

First of all, one of the questions I often ask people in return is: "if God doesn't exist, why do good things happen?" A plane just crashed recently at the Toronto airport coming in from Paris. I was shocked see it bursting up in flames. Fire trucks surrounded it, highways were jammed from the airport to what-nots. The smell of burning rubble was so strong that I was able to smell it where I lived, an hour away from the airport. And yet the miraculous thing is: NO ONE died, not even one person on that plane. I thanked God that no one perished, and one can't help but note that it was truly an act of God.

There is also beauty in this world. I often spend a long time just gazing at the sky during sunsets, marveling at its beauty. The sky darkens very quickly during the summer. In about 20 minutes, it changes from radiant sunlight to dusk. Each minute is another picture of beauty, astonglishing, takes my breath away. I love art and I believe that God is truly the best artist. When scientists try to find a solution to a problem, they often look for the simplist answers. It's always the most beautiful answer that is the correct one. I love capturing nature on my camera, those are always the best photographs. I wonder to myself sometimes, if this world was just caused by random cosmos, WHY is there so much beauty in this world?

Now, moving onto the core topic: If God exists, why then is there pain and suffering? Why do bad things happen?

I would like to divide up the question into three cases.  1. Self-inflicted pain 2. Undeserving evil but preventable  3. Undeserving bad things that were unpreventable

I don't know about you, but to me, heartaches are the worst pains I've ever endured. It drowns me in a sea of suffering, I see no end to it. Nothing helps whether its poetry, music, or art. Music usually makes me sadder when I go through a heartbreak. I still remember my last heartbreak, over a guy whose name shall rename unknown but he knows who he is. God clearly told me not to give out my heart, friends warned me, my family was... well.. I went behind their backs... The result: heartbreak. Heartbreak due to disobedience. And the funny thing is, I'm the kind of person that takes years to get over a guy. Funny eh? But this year when I finally got serious about God, and one day I got down on my knees and begged God to take away the pain, ever since then, I've been so much better.

Self-inflicted pain are results of disobedience. You do something wrong, you have consequences

"All that we call human history--money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery--[is] the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy."
- Excerpt from Mere Christianity by C.S.Lewis

There is evil in this world, no doubt. It brings me to tears when I watch Channel 9 and see the kids in Africa with no food, poor shelter, and no family. It angers me to see kids getting raped and abused, to see fathers and sometimes even mothers abandoning their kids. It aggravates me to see the way people treat the homeless, and even calling them lazy freeloaders. 9-11 made me silent. However, evil doesn't prove God doesn't exist. Evil proves that Satan exists, that sin exists. God gave us freewill, He gave us the option to do things wrong, to hurt and be mean to others. It breaks His heart, but He allows these things to happen. It does NOT mean, though, that God does not care or that He is powerless to do anything about it. I'll explain why later.

All three cases describes something in common: pain. Pain you wish you didn't have, that should go away but doesn't. And you wonder why God (if there is a God) doesn't stop the pain.

Have you ever done this? When things are great and all, God doesn't seem to be present at all! But when trouble starts coming your way and you have nowhere else to turn, you start praying. I know I have... There are times I've said "yeah yeah God, let me just run my own life ok? I'll enjoy it whatever way I can" But then when trouble started coming my way I started praying like "okay God, I'm sooooooo sorry , ummm.. listen, if you do this for me I promise I'll be good for the rest of my life... etc. etc." Sounds familiar?

Hardships draw us closer to God. I didn't intend to come to the University of Toronto for engineering. I had an entirely different path in mind. But somehow God brought me here instead. My first year as an engineering student was the HARDEST year of my life, and yet it became a year where I got closer to God than I've ever been in my whole entire life. Funny how things work out. God often put hardships in our paths because it is the ONLY way to get our attention.

I recently received news of the death of the father of a close friend of mine. It broke my heart to see the once joyful girl broken, in such great pain. I couldn't help but ask God, "why her? She loved you, Lord! Why not take the life of someone's father who hated you instead?" When I talked to her after her father's funeral though, she said something that awed me. I had asked her how her spiritual life was and she had said she was closer to God than she's ever been. When I commented on how it's amazing that she was seeking God more instead of forsaking Him because of this, she answered me with: "are you kidding? what is there to cling to if it's not God??? Especially when it seems like nobody understands!"

I don't know if I told anyone this but I have a disabled cousin. My cousin's disability has brought much pain upon this family, and we all love him very, very much. My cousin, however, is the only reason why we are all here today, my whole entire family. He's also responsible for salvation of part of my family, when my Aunt had nowhere else to turn, she turned to God, and she brought some of our family to Christ soon afterwards as well, including me.

People comment on how it's unfair that God sees people suffering and yet He doesn't take their pains away. Many people say that perhaps God is powerless.

If you choose to say "God can give a creature free-will and at the same time withhold free-will from it," you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words "God can."
- Excerpt from The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis

Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself.- Excerpt from The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis

Besides, how can a mere finite human be sure that infinite wisdom would not tolerate certain short-range evils/pains in order for more long-range goods that we couldn't foresee? Also, some pain is good for us in order for us to learn.

Justice delayed is not necessarily justice denied. Criticizing God for not doing it right now is like reading half a novel and criticizing the author for not resolving the plot. On judgement day, justice will be done!

One philosopher formulated an argument against God this way: First, there is no reason that would justify God in permitting so much evil rather than a lot less; second, if God exists, then there must be such a reason; so, three, God does not exist.

This is like saying it's reasonable to believe in God if six Jews die in a Holocaust, but not seven. Or sixty thousand but not sixty thousand and one. When you translate the general statement 'so much' into particular examples like that, it shows how absurd it is. There can't be a dividing line. At what point does suffering disprove the existence of God? No such point can be shown. Besides, because we are not God, we can't say how much suffering is needed.

Most people are familiar with the story of Job, but for those of you that aren't, I'll briefly summarize, it's in the Bible too, so look it up if you have time. Job was a righteous man who did everything that God was pleased with. As a result God blessed him abundantly. One day, however, Satan came up and commented: "you know, Job is only righteous because you have given him so much, take it all away and see if he still worships you." So God gave Satan the power to take away everything God has given Job. Job's sons and daughters died, his land was looted along with his animals. Job was in great pain and did not understand why God had done something like this. He was so sad that he wished he had never been born. And yet he said "should we accept good from God and not trouble?" Finally, he got an response from God. God was pleased that Job passed the test, and in return God blessed him abundantly once again.

The Ultimate Pain -- Hell
Perhaps one of the hardest questions about Christianity. Why would a loving God send people to hell?
To answer this question, we need to know what Hell really is. The definition of hell has been long misunderstood by this culture. Even many Christians do not know what hell really is.

I believe hell is just a place where God is not present. I know that the Bible describes hell as a place of flames, worms, and gnashing of teeth, but a lot of times, the Bible uses symbolism to demonstrate its points and I think this is one of them.

I don't think there are actually flames in hell, because it would make no sense. hell is described as a place of complete darkness, fire would simply light things up, which would contradict it. It is a symbolism that represents the fact that hell is a place of utter heartbreak. It is a loss of everything, and the worst possible situation that could ever happen to a person.

I think the worms are in reference to Jesus' days when there was a sewage system for the blood and fat of dead animals to flow, where it gathered in a pool, There were worms constantly ingesting that. It's to describe how ugly hell would feel.

Gnashing of teeth is meant to describe a state of anger or realization of great loss.

In a sense, hell is just a place where God is not present at all. It's described as such a terrible place because you will get to meet God before it, and catch a glimpse of the most beautiful Being in the universe, and be kept forever apart from Him. Hell is a place of eternal regret. No, God doesn't "send" people to hell per se, we choose there by saying "God, I want to have absolutely nothing to do with You", and God grants us that wish by deserting us, leaving us in a place where He is not present at all, and we spend eternality regreting that decision.

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For those that are suffering in pain right now, here's a word of advice. Draw closer to God and He will draw closer to you. Knowing God is NOT a magic wand, it doesn't mean your pain will go away instantly, it does mean, however, that you will be transformed by pain, by trouble. That you will be a stronger person able to handle future hardships. It means that you will come to know this God more and more and draw nearer to Him, which will have eternal impacts. Have a blessed day.

Some quotes in this entry are taken from Lee Strobel's book "The Case for Faith"