Is Our Suffering God's Will? Part 4

Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve...

Joshua 24:15

 

When I posted Joshua Trager's CNN article on my Facebook page with his questioning headline, Is Our Suffering God's Will, a friend of mine responded thus:

I read C.S. Lewis' On Pain and Suffering in high school, and it completely changed the way I thought about faith.  The answer to the question in the headline is, No, and it points out the problem with free will:  if we have free will, there will always be suffering and pain that's not God's will.  If He stopped all suffering from happening, then we wouldn't have free will anymore, which would mean our choice to follow Him wouldn't be a choice anymore either.  He'd end up with a world of mindless drones.  So instead of taking away free will and doing away with all suffering (because you can't have one without the other), He instead transforms those times of pain into a stepping stone toward a bigger plan He has for our lives.  

 

When human beings have the ability to make choices, they must suffer the consequences of the decisions they make.  Further, one individual's choice may cause another person's pain.  In Mr. Trager's tragedy, there were many choices that had a profound effect far beyond the lives of the individuals who made them.

• The traffic authority was well aware of the danger of that particular stretch of road, and yet chose not to do anything to change the situation, even after 100+ casualties occurred at that spot.
• The truck driver chose to party all night (including the consumption of alcohol) before heading to work, then chose to ignore posted warning signs to reduce speed and gear down.
• The driver's license authority chose to allow a 25-year-old man to continue driving after 26 traffic accidents. 
• The truck company chose to continue the employment of a driver with 26 traffic accidents.

God does not step in to intercept or countermand our choices. He gives us free reign to decide how we want to live our lives. When our choices have disastrous consequences for ourselves and/or others, He must step back and allows the dominoes to fall.