The Issue of Suffering - Essay Example

At a time where comfort and convenience are common market commodities, with things such as instant food, instant shopping and even instant help so prevalent, the society has lost the appreciation of sacrifice and self-denial. As a result, we have become accustomed to labeling small comfort and convenience disruptions as sufferings.

            There are, of course, those who are inevitably suffering pain, those with a terminal illness or emotional burdens, coping with a loss or bearing bodily pains.  At these times, when, no material thing can bring about healing, no words, no touch are enough to console, will there be someone who can bring comfort? If someone has authored or at least allowed sufferings, will He also be there to appease?

            The issue of suffering can be viewed from different views and fields. It can be studied philosophically, can also be of the exam by mere reason, and most of all, and most prominently, it can be scrutinized given faith. Indeed, many people have tried to explain suffering, both those who believe and those who do not believe in the existence of God.

            An article by Arthur Schopenhauer says that “unless suffering is the direct and immediate object of life, our existence must entirely fail of its aim. It is absurd to look upon the enormous amount of pain that abounds everywhere in the world, and originates in needs and necessities inseparable from life itself, as serving no purpose at all and the result of mere chance (Schopenhauer).

            Even the great philosopher believes that it is futile to consider suffering as having no purpose at all. He associated it with our needs which ordinarily come with life.

            An academician from the East, who happened to be an Islam, also had a slice of view on suffering in a lecture that he has conducted in one of the premier universities. According to him, suffering is not necessarily negative. It is unavoidable because our world is far from perfect and what matters most is our view of it. It is negative to those who see it as a stumbling block and positive to those who approach it as a stepping stone toward his perfection and spiritual growth (Espiritu, 2006).

            Michael Martin has evaluated William Craig’s oral debates about the concept of suffering. The latter says that suffering increases acceptance of God and Christian evangelism such as what happened in the country of El Salvador (Martin, 1997). He has dismissed this argument however as according to him, it runs in contrast to rationality.

            Bob and Gretchen Passantino tried to answer the question, “If God is good, why is there too much suffering in the world?”  The article says that suffering is the consequence of wrong choices specifically of sins (Bob Passantino, 1997). God has given us free will so that when we reap the consequences of our choice. He added further that, although God allows people to make wrong choices, as He has not created us to be robots, He works while suffering for our favor. God has the assurance that He will eliminate suffering in the last time, through the suffering that Jesus Christ Himself has undergone, and that’s the greatest comfort that we can receive.

            Another article posted online by the United Church of God asks, “Is God indifferent to Human Suffering?”. When we label catastrophes such as hurricanes, typhoons, and earthquakes that claim thousands of lives to be “acts of God”, we tend to look at God as indifferent and heartless  (United Church of God). This view is both unrealistic and unfair as it nullifies the participation of human deeds in suffering.

            Indeed, it is not the presence of an Almighty God that brings about suffering but his absence in our life as we choose to follow our own stubborn will rather than learn to obey. We have participated in participating as not being able to take care well of our body, which is thought in the bible, treating our body as a temple where God himself resides (1Corinthians, 2001). Personal responsibility must be recognized in suffering.

            Suffering without due human reason is also exhibited in the bible, such as the sufferings of Job and even of Paul. This means that God has deliberately allowed suffering despite obedience. And these cases are probably the most painful, yet still, God reigns sovereign over the pain. God has reasons, and they are always good. God did not promise the absence of pain, even to His followers, but He promised comfort emanating from Him, and that is even more rewarding than any comfort here on earth.