Summary
Though suffering can make it hard for us to understand, God truly is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. When we experience the glory of Heaven, even our worst sufferings now will seem like nothing.
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Reflective Study Guide Questions
“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.”
Rm. 8:18.
1. Isaac asserts that when we consider suffering, we need a deep awareness that God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. When we consider that God is all-knowing, we can see that He knows every aspect of every suffering we have ever endured. What are the most significant sufferings in your life right now? How can you work on growing in your awareness that God knows of these sufferings?
2. When we consider that God is all-powerful, we can see that He allows all things in our lives. Have you ever clearly seen God allow something to happen in your life? In what ways has He shown you His powerfulness in the past?
3. When we consider that God is all-loving, it can be very hard for us to understand why He has allowed sufferings in our lives or in the lives of others. Do you ever struggle with questions of why He has allowed sufferings? How can you grow in appreciation of His love for you?
4. St. Paul tells us in Scripture that the sufferings we endure now will be as nothing when we experience the glory of Heaven. How can knowing this help you through times of suffering?
Text: Being United to God in Redemptive Suffering
Hello, I’m Isaac Wicker. Today I want to start to tackle the big question of why does God allow suffering? Before we get started, let’s start in prayer.
Opening Prayer
In the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Father, here we are before you. You know us. You know our suffering. You know how our hearts hurt. Please help us to trust you more, to receive more of your love and your goodness. Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
God is Bigger Than Suffering
Before we dive too far into this topic, I just want to open up saying that when you’re talking about suffering, you have to be really reverent and gentle. Be really reverent and gentle with yourself and your own suffering and with other people who are suffering. You never just want to give answers to suffering. That doesn’t help anybody. When we’re suffering, it’s our hearts that are broken. So just giving a mental answer doesn’t do very much.
That said, I think there is a lot of space for us to move into the question of suffering while holding onto this reverence and gentleness to be able to honor the suffering that we do experience. And when we’re facing this question, we don’t need to minimize suffering. We don’t need to try to make it less than it is so that we can give God a better look so that we can give God a better chance. God is bigger than our suffering already. And so looking at our suffering in the face actually in some ways can help us to understand God’s greatness. So approaching this topic of suffering, I want to base it on three different premises, three different premises that you’ve heard before, that God is all powerful, that God is all knowing, that God is all loving. I’m sure you’ve heard that many, many times, and you’ve probably even said it to people in some, in some variation of that. But when it comes to suffering, we need to know it again.
We need to really know that He’s all powerful, all knowing and all loving, that He has all. First of all, let’s start with all knowing. He knows everything about you. He knows every little way that you’ve suffered, all the little wounds from people taunting you or bullying you or calling you names, or the abuse that you’ve received. All the different wounds, all the different embarrassments. He knows them. He knows you intimately, He knows your heart, how sensitive it can be, how hard it can be. He knows everything, and He’s all powerful. He created the whole world. He created the whole cosmos. He created your life. He has already mapped out all of human history, all of your history. He has the power to create and to uncreate, to destroy. So everything that has happened in your life has in some way been allowed by God. He is the master, He is sovereign, He is king. So there’s nothing out of His control. There’s Nothing beyond Him, There’s no accidents. He knows everything and He’s all powerful.
So everything that’s happened to you, He’s seen it. And for some reason in His providence, He’s allowed it. At this point, you might just start to get angry. And if you’re taking those two premises seriously, you probably should be angry. Why? Why did He allow so much suffering? Why did He allow me to be hurt? Why did He allow my kids to be hurt? My friends? Why is there so much chaos and destruction in the world? There’s all powerful, all knowing God. Maybe it doesn’t seem like He’s doing that great of a job. And so it’s hard when we introduce this third premise, it can be hard for us to really believe it, that God is all loving. Not only does He know everything about you, not only has every moment in your life been allowed and part of His plan, but it’s allowed because He loves you, because He loves your children, because He loves your friends. He loves your family, He loves everyone. Again, this is mostly just baffling. We’re talking about suffering. You don’t have to go far to find suffering.
Why Does God Allow Suffering?
To be honest, even today was a rough day so far for me. My kids woke up cranky, I woke up cranky. I just had to like take a nap and reset before this recording that we don’t have to go far to find big or little suffering, to find a world that seems very, very, very imperfect and painful. I work as a therapist and every day that’s what I’m encountering, people who’ve been abused, people who’ve been mistreated, rejected, who feel alone, who hurt so deeply, and to just go to them and say, God loves you and He created this life for you. Like many of these people don’t love life. I work with a lot of people who are suicidal, who the very, the thought of living is painful because of how deeply they’ve been hurt.
So how is it possible that God is all three of these things, that He is genuinely all three of these things that He can know everything about me, know all of my sensitivities, know all of my desires, that He has all the power in the world, and that He loves me intimately. And yet, this is the life that I have. This is the life of my clients. This is the life of my children. This is the life of my friends. Why is there so much suffering? Why does God allow suffering? And here we come to the real root. Often we don’t stick with these three premises all the way through. We try to discount God in one of the ways I think often as good faithful Catholics, we try to discount Him in His power.
Actually. We say, yes, God is loving and good, and I’m going to kind of let Him off the hook here. He probably didn’t mean for that to hurt me so badly. Or He’s probably like, He probably wasn’t all powerful like that. That kind of like got away from Him. Or I’ll just have to pretend that it wasn’t so bad so that I can still honor and praise God. We kind of diminish His power, diminish His knowledge, and let Him off the hook. Yeah, it wasn’t so bad. I guess I’ll get over it. I’ll take care of it. We put ourselves in a position of like, I’ll take care of it. So God doesn’t have to, I’ll just pretend it wasn’t so bad. Or we diminish Him in His love. And I hear this argument much more from people who are nonbelievers, but we can find it in our own hearts too. Like God could do whatever He wants, but He hates me. He wants to punish me, He wants to destroy me. If God was actually loving and powerful, all of these things wouldn’t have happened. So He must not be loving if He does exist at all, He must just be a tyrant. He must actually deep down hate us. He must want to punish us.
And I see that often reflected in the wounds of my clients. Even if they can praise God’s goodness, there’s a catch. But He doesn’t actually love me. I’m so bad that He can’t love me, and that’s why I’m being punished. That’s why I have to suffer so much. But no, somehow everything in your life, everything is from a God who knows you and loves you and has all the power in the world to make your life for you, everything. What does that mean? How is everything that you’ve ever lived given to you by a God who loves you? And that’s where if we allow that premise to sink in, we open up into a huge mystery. How could that be? What’s it all for? What’s the true, the answer that makes it all worth it?
Destined for Glory
St. Paul says something along the lines of our suffering in the present time is nothing in comparison with the glory that we’re destined for nothing. You know you’re suffering. You know it’s not nothing. What possible glory could make that suffering seem as nothing. And so the our suffering actually can become a glimpse or a foreshadowing into the greatness of heaven, the great glory that we’re destined for, that our suffering. Somehow it’s all worth it. Somehow, the God who knows everything about us and loves us immensely says it’s all worth it. He knows the way for us that one day when we see the plan, we’re going to laugh with Him. We’re going to be so happy.
Our suffering in the present time is nothing in comparison with the glory that we’re destined for, nothing. How is that possible? We’re destined for something so great, So beyond our imagining, so beyond the suffering, the worst suffering, you can imagine that all of that can be redeemed, can find glory, can find an answer that’s truly sufficient for it. We can’t even imagine that now. So in your worst moments, and this isn’t just some God who’s out there making a master plan that’s really good. He’s intimately involved. He never left you. He never will. It’s not like He’s making some plan from far away, but He’s the Father who’s always intimate, who’s carrying you, who’s carrying you.
So in your worst moment, your worst moment ever, you were held, you were held by a Father who knew what was going on, who loved you so much, so much, and already then knew the way forward for you, knew that this wasn’t going to end in just suffering. He knew that evil wasn’t going to have the final say. In your worst moment You were held. You were a precious little one that he was holding. Even though it seems in every part of you that you were alone, that it just hurt that that was the end of the story. That’s not the end of the story.
And He shows us with the best example He can, that that’s who He is. He gives us Jesus on the cross dying, the precious little one of the God, the Father there on the cross in agony. But we know in faith that even there, Jesus is held so tenderly. Jesus is held so tenderly and the story never ends with the cross, but there’s the triumph, the resurrection, and the cross becomes something that we hold up for our victory, as our victory.
Let’s Turn to Him
This is what the Father wants to show us about our suffering. He doesn’t want to explain it. He doesn’t want to give you the right answer, but He wants to say, I’m there and there’s a great victory for you. My little one, I know how much it hurts. I know how hard it’s been, but that’s not the end. Trust me. Trust me. I know I’m holding you and it’s going to be okay. So let’s turn to Him again and really show Him our suffering.
And just in a simple way, say, daddy, can I trust you? Is there really a way for me? Do you really love me here? I trust you, daddy, I trust you. And let’s call out to Him every time the suffering is immense, turn to Him and trust. See, I know, I know that you see me here. I know in some way in your providence you allow even this, But you never let go of me. You love me and I’m going to trust you here. Amen.
About Isaac Wicker
Isaac Wicker is a Catholic therapist, speaker, and content creator with a decade of mental health experience. Outside of his therapy work, he founded and runs two online Catholic programs for integrating faith and mental health: Whole Human Challenge (wholehumanchallenge.com), a 7-week Catholic challenge to uproot anxiety and enliven faith; and KNOWN: Embraced by the Heart of the Father (knownbythefather.com), a 12-week online Catholic journey to heal wounded relationships with God the Father. You can follow his instagram and find him on YouTube @wholehumanpsychology. Isaac lives in Minnesota with his wife and two boys (with another on the way!)