Problem of Pain: What Love Means

Put your thigh-high waders on, people, we are going deep. C.S. Lewis writes this stunningly powerful essay that attempts to reconcile "if the universe is so bad, or even half so bad, how on earth did human beings ever come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator?" Basically, how could a benevolent God allow suffering and pain? I think that no matter what a person's personal faith journey is, it's likely they've considered this question.

He offers amazing insight; here is one of my favorites:

"When pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much course, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all."

One of the challenges that we have with a good God is that there is pain in the world. How could he allow us to suffer if he loved us so much? Well, C.S. Lewis points that exact fact out: "You asked for a loving God: you have one. The great spirit you so lightly invoked, the 'lord of terrible aspect', is present: not a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests, but the consuming fire Himself, the Love that made the worlds, persistent as the artist's love for his work and despotic as a man's love for a dog, provident and venerable as a father's love for a child, jealous, inexorable, exacting as love between the sexes."

I LOVE my children, therefore I have high expectations for them, sometimes causing them the discomfort of discipline.
I LOVE my husband, therefore I expect that he remain constant, faithful, present and would incredibly heartbroken if he wasn't.
I LOVE my students and have high standards for them to be empathetic and hardworking, and feel frustrated when they aren't.
I LOVE my family and so when they go down paths that aren't beneficial, I feel drawn to call it out, even in the pain of hurt feelings--but so they may have abundant life.

Lewis reminds us that "Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness" and that "our 'happiness' is not the end God chiefly has in view: but when we are such as He can love us without impediment, we shall in fact be happy." I discovered this idea a few years ago and it has helped me see my life as a series of trials, of tests, of refinements of my character and faith. Junky days don't happen because God is mean or Satan is riding my tail--my loving God is trying to get me to rise above, respond in grace, exercise patience, extend mercy. Sometimes I do OK, sometimes, not so much.

While knowing this doesn't make life EASIER, it does make like seem more PURPOSEFUL. And that is the beauty of knowing this LOVING Creator.