My Response to the Problem of Evil
by Prasha
I want to share what I’ve learned and struggled with in light of Haiti’s current situation. I have found myself being asked this question: “Why is your all-good, all-powerful, and all-loving God making evil things happen?” And I, like any of you, resort to the Bible and books written by philosophers and theologians. So, I have been reading a book called When Bad things happen to Good People by Harold Kushner. He is a rabbi from Massachusetts, and he wrote this book in honor of his son, Aaron, whom he lost to a very rare disease called Progeria. I’m reading this book not because I’m a good person and because a really bad thing happened to me just recently. Anyway, he writes that he has been a sensitive pastor and a mature counselor because of his son’s death. He grew spiritually, and he can relate to many people in similar circumstances. But he could forgo all those gains if he got his son back. But he cannot choose that.
This also reminds me of some of our well-meaning pastors who, when visiting their terminally ill parishioners, try to comfort their similar questions of ‘why’ with very insensitive statements. They request the victim to weigh what he has gained through this and see how this has brought his family together and so forth. But really, no greater purpose that God might have for this person outweighs what he is currently going through. A person’s life, to our human mind, is way more precious to us than the lessons we may have.
So, Kusher further says that maybe we are asking the wrong questions, “Why has this tragedy happened to me?” We must release these questions and shift our focus away from the past and the pain. But really, now that the event has happened, how do we respond to this situation and look on to the future?
Surely, God may not prevent a calamity like the earthquake in Haiti, as some of my friends have said that this is a natural consequence to years of poor governance and bad decisions of the Haitian people. Yet, there are people going out there risking their lives, saving the lives of people who are total strangers to them, and rebuilding this community that has almost been demolished. And these strengths and perseverance qualify as acts of God. Because these emergent qualities could not have originated solely from people, there must be an external source that provides them.
And hence, I do not have to answer these people who try to challenge my faith. I do not have to answer these questions with my limited intelligence. Because it is not my intelligent answers that save people but actually the response and action, for we are God’s workmanship created in advance to do good works (Eph. 2:10). And I look at people around and see how you all are involved in rebuilding the lives of many, and certainly that mission and vision to serve are from God.
Having said all this, I still struggle with God’s quietness, and then I look at the verse that all my professors and pastor have shown me: Deuteronomy 29:29—The secret things belong to the Lord our God, and what have been revealed belong to us and our children forever. Any thoughts?
