Habakkuk cries out the question that is on all of our lips:
How long, O Lord? How long will we suffer? Why do you let us suffer?
The Church and its people have struggled to answer this question since it all began. I'm not sure I have a better answer. Or an answer at all. But, here are some thoughts on it that can be shared this day:
The Creation story tells us that God's initial plan and dream did not include pain and suffering.
But our desire to put ourselves in the place of God----demanding to know all there is to know (from the tree of good and evil) instead of trusting for God to know all there is to know----and acting on this desire of ours threw God's plan totally out of whack.
Could God---Creator of all---simply start again? Wipe out the errors and get us back on track. Well, yes, I suppose so, if God wants something less than real and intimate relationship with Creation. But our salvation story makes it clear that God deeply desires a real and intimate relationship with all of Creation---including us. And for relationship to be real and authentic, then both parties must choose to be in the relationship. Both parties must be committed.
God has initiated this relationship. God has given us all the tools, and God has removed all the barriers, so that we can build this intimate, life-giving, world-changing relationship with the One who creates, sanctifies, and redeems. But we must choose to enter the covenant as well. We must say, "I do."
And when this walk toward God brings us suffering? When life hands us pain and injustice-----where is God then?
Right with us. Jesus died on the cross so that we might know the divine suffers along with us. And then God infuses us with new life as we are resurrected. Not just after death. But after pain and suffering. If we, like Jesus, can hand it over to God and trust that God has new life and new breath for us, we will be given new life. God doesn't duck out of the suffering. God sustains us through the suffering into the promise of new life.
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