In today’s society men are quick to accept credit when things go well but often look to blame God when major catastrophes hit. Whenever discussions of suffering come up many are quick to say if there is a loving God how can he allow so many world tragedies to happen.
I will never forget many years ago someone asked Mother Teresa if God is so good why does He allow so many people to go hungry? She was quick to respond that it isn’t God who allows hundreds of millions of people to go to bed hungry every night but it’s mankind! And she is right. Statistics show that we can produce enough food today to feed everyone on the planet. According to Charlie Campbell: “The world produces more than one and a half times enough food to feed every person on the planet, enough to feed 10 billion people. The lack of food is often because of wars, or governments and rebel forces that will not permit food, aid, and supplies to reach the people. It’s not God who is cruel, but humans who rebel against God’s instructions to love our neighbors and look out for the interest of others.”1
You see suffering is often a by-product of human sin. Man is often his worst enemy. From world hunger and racism to slavery and genocide much of human suffering is a direct result of our sin-stained world. We live in a broken world and even our natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes are a direct result of the curse that our world is under through Adam’s sin.
But there is hope to alleviate much of the human suffering we see all around us. It, however, won’t be the result of man’s efforts, but only when God changes the human heart through Christ. When this happens Christian compassion, as is often the case, will lead the way to a major wave of good deeds towards our fellowman and the alleviation of much of the suffering we see today.
As Christians we need to pray to God to use us as vessels to help alleviate human suffering whenever it is in our power to do so. The world is watching us and as ambassadors for Christ the picture that people get of God is often based on how they view us. As we show and demonstrate true Christian love people will be drawn to the God we say is all about love. As long as sin is in the world we will have suffering but let’s do our part to alleviate as much as we can and not only glorify God through our actions but show the world that we serve a great and wonderful God in the process.