Why we suffer- (Part 1) Physical Implications

Many people all over the world have resentment and content towards God because they have suffered or know someone who has suffered with disease, pain, anxiety, depression, etc. They find that they can not come to terms with a Loving God allowing his people to suffer and die. In order to tackle this question of why we suffer, we must first break it down into two categories; why do we suffer physically and why do we suffer spiritually?

First, let’s tackle the physical suffering because people tend to look at it in a very negative light because the word evokes much fear in them. If we break down the underlying reason for feeling pain, it is actually a protective mechanism. Our bodies are designed to feel pain when our bodies are attacked, whether stepping on a nail, touching a hot plate, being affected by common viruses, etc. and this reaction of pain gives us the ability to know the problem exists and to treat it.

Hunger and thirst are a great example of this as well. If you go too long without eating and drinking you will start to suffer as your body is dying of thirst and starvation. It is in this pain and suffering that we begin to look for food and water to fix the problem. It isn’t evil or a plague that God has put on us, rather pain and suffering allow us to explain and recognize what it is that is wrong with us, therefore enabling us to solve the problem.

Now some people hold God accountable for such things as viruses and cancers as a form of punishment upon humans. I have heard people ask the question “if there is a God, why would he allow cancer to occur?” Believe me, there are many people who walk away from faith in anything over this issue, yet the question is as absurd as asking “why does God allow lions to live?” Think about it! Cancer, lions, people, viruses, and bacteria are all living things that feed off of other living things in order to survive. If you lost a friend to a lion attack, you’d blame it on bad luck and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, yet if the same friend were in a hospital bed being eaten to death by cancer, many would blame God and not understand that essentially the same thing is happening that happened with a lion attack, just much slower.

Humans tend to overcomplicate these issues and look for someone to blame when bad things are happening to them or their loved ones. We must realize our mortality and understand that while we are on this Earth, we will suffer. We may not like it, just as some didn’t like vegetables as kids, but our body uses pain and suffering to help us identify our problems. If God were to take this ability away, our lifespan would diminish considerably because we would never know when to seek treatment.