Hard Questions...

“God is love.”

1 John 4:16

         Every now and then, a question comes along that is so profound in its implications that all of life seems to pause while an answer is pondered.  This happened recently to me while watching cartoons with my daughter.  Though I’ve been familiar with them for years, I suddenly realized that both Goofy and Pluto are dogs, yet one was a talking character and the other merely a pet.  How could this be?!  My mind reeled in a futile attempt to comprehend this animated conundrum. 

     This is not the first query to cause such internal turmoil.  Many moments have been spent considering such things like why someone would put an ‘s’ in the word “lisp.” Or what exactly a “turvy” refers to in the phrase “topsy-turvy.”  Or whether or not an individual player for the Boston Red Sox’s should be identified as a “Red Sock.”  And this doesn’t even include more profound questions like, “Did Adam have a navel?” or “Where did Seth get his wife?”

      Yet there is one question that plagues any serious thought about God.  Indeed this question is so deeply profound that it has often been labeled “the problem of evil,” and is one of the chief causes of doubt in the existence of God.   In a nutshell, the question is:

Why does God allow evil?

Nearly everyone agrees that evil exists, both in “natural” forms (cancer, earthquakes, etc.) and “moral” forms (murder, rape, etc.).  Now, if God is who He says He is, if He is real, if He is all-loving, if He is all-powerful, and if He is all-knowing, then we have a serious problem.  He has the desire, the means, and the knowledge to stop all forms of evil, and yet He does not do it.  Why?!

     While a comprehensive treatment of this profound question cannot be covered here, on a basic level, the answer is: Love.   At first glance, this may seem like nonsense.  “Evil exists because of love?”  Well, yes.  Please let me explain…

     A couple of years ago, as our daughter Micah was first learning to speak, my wife and I taught her to open her arms up wide and say, “I love you this much.”  Occasionally we would prompt her, and Micah would dutifully (and usually cheerfully) perform the phrase on cue, much to the delight of the nearest grandparent.  Micah’s little act was precious, even though we all knew that she didn’t really understand what she was saying. 

     Fast forward a couple of years, and Micah has developed into a little girl who sincerely loves her family.  Every so often, she’ll come over to one of us, open up her arms as wide as they’ll go, and exclaim gleefully “I love you THIIIIIIIIS much!”  Unprompted, unrehearsed, un-coerced… just a natural expression of a little heart that explodes with compassion and love for those around her.

      As her father, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her as a toddler imitate our actions.  The cuteness was nearly unbearable.  But what truly melts my heart is when she comes, on her own free will, to tell me that she loves me.  That is real love. 

      You see, God could have created us to be puppets; merely repeating the commands of the master.  We could have been robots – programmed only to do certain tasks.  We could have been programmed to praise God, to do good things, and to live holy lives.  But something would have been missing.  Any “love” that we might have shown would have been hollow – no more sincere than when Micah’s favorite doll squeaks “I love you.”   

      Instead, God knew that any true expression of love must include free will – the capacity to choose.  This however, is where evil comes in.  Ultimately, God allows evil because He loves us enough to give us the freedom of choice.  And, beginning with Adam, we have all chosen poorly.  A long history of natural and moral evil has been the result. 

      While the necessity of choice helps explain why God allows evil, there is another reason.  Personally, I would love for my children to grow up in a perfectly sheltered environment – free from all scrapes, bumps, skinned-knees, and other tragedies.  I would like to totally protect them from the evil that’s in this world.  Yet that type of absolute-shielding is not what my girls need most.  They need to learn how to live well in spite of evil.  Ultimately, my job is not to totally protect them, but to train them.

      Likewise, God is more glorified when we learn to love Him in spite of evil – when we worship Him in the midst of hardship.  Indeed, God did not totally shield His own Son from evil, but used it to achieve something far greater. 

      While it is perfectly acceptable to ask for God’s continued protection against evil, I pray that ultimately we might learn the greater lesson that Christ has taught us all – to open up our arms as wide as they’ll go and say to our Lord, “I love you thiiiiiis much!”  After all, that's exactly what He did for us.

Soli Deo Gloria

Tim Cotten