From where does my help come?

At times of natural and human disaster in particular, the questions 'why is God doing this?' and 'why does God let bad things happen?'/'why doesn't God do something to stop this suffering?' often get asked.

There isn't space here to do much justice to any answer for either of those - this is one of the big questions in theology, and a google of 'theodicy' will give a wealth of articles and opinions in far more detail. However, there are a couple of things that spring to mind that I'm pondering at the moment (which of themselves is far too simplistic an argument for the whole!)...

If God is love (1 John 4.16b), then the idea that God causes suffering...that God has 'sent' this pandemic doesn't fit. Sending suffering would either be simple cruelty, or to punish. Neither fits with the assurance that God is love, and that 'nothing can separate us from the love of God' (Romans 8.38-39). It also ignores the scientific fact that viruses exist in the world, and are perfectly capable of infecting living things without God 'sending them' to do so.

The more important question, it seems, is not 'why is God doing this?', but 'why doesn't God do something to stop this?'.

The scientist in me says, 'to explore this, think about the extremes'...
- if God never intervened in our lives and in our suffering... then would God be God?
- if God always intervened... then we would find ourselves completely controlled by God, so that no one ever suffered any pain. We would not be humans with free will; instead, simply God's playthings.

Perhaps, then, the question is...so where is God in all of this?

While we should definitely not discount miracles, it is pretty safe to say that whenever we get ill, we have to trust on our bodies, and frequently on modern medicine, to help us recover. God is not absent in this, but walks alongside us in our illness.
A broken bone will not fix itself immediately because of prayer. That does not mean God is absent or that prayer is pointless at times like that.

(Pope Francis preached a homily today that touches on some of these themes. If you'd like to read it, it can be found here.)


When anxiety is high and the future uncertain, it can sometimes be difficult to find headspace for prayer other than simply crying out to God (which in itself, is no bad thing, and no less of a prayer!); these prayers for calmness might be helpful at those times.


♫ As a reminder that God is with us through the good and the bad, how about listening to:  I AM