I woke up this morning. If I died during my sleep it would have been a tragedy, a “why do bad things happen to good people” moment (whether I deserve the title “good”, folks would say it for Meg and the kids). But that I awoke no one bats an eyes — except to get the sleepers out. Waking up is just natural. What we expect to happen.

Good is so expected that it is considered natural. It is evil that is a surprise.

This week I again encountered the difficult question of evil. It is a question that every believer will wrestle with and one that often causes belief to stumble. If God is good, why is there evil? Why is there pain? Suffering? Disasters? Hunger? Cancer? We can discuss freewill (humans create evil), but that begs the earlier question, “why do bad things happen to good people?” Good choices can find tragedy. Bad choices can find riches. Karma is not true! “Why doesn’t God fix this!”*

• Occasionally I hear Christians respond with scripture, “there are no righteous” (Romans 3:10). But this is not taking the question (and the person struggling) seriously. Certainly, compared to God, there are no righteous. We can not save ourselves (by “save” I mean bring ourselves into right relationship with God). BUT, on a human scale, there are Gandhis and there are Hitlers. One is more righteous.

People deeply wrestling with the question of evil often question the existence of God. In the face of evil faith can wilt.

But there is also a dilemma for the atheist. To be alone in the universe begs the opposite, why is there good? Not only why does good exist, but why does good so outnumber the bad that we don’t even notice it? As I wrote above, we consider good natural!

Evil exists. It is powerful. The marks it leaves are terrible. But evil is not the norm. We are surprised and outraged by evil’s crisis. Most days we wake up and experience life. Not only that we are alive. There is food to eat and tasks to accomplish. People all around us, not out to get us, but who smile back. Children at play. And if we really open our mind, we are flooded with colors and sounds that become art and music.

As the believer wrestles with evil, the atheist must ask, did chance create joy?

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As a believer, my answer to the question of evil: God created a good world. But He also created Love, which can only become reality with free choice. Love can not be forced.

As God loved creation, He desired creation to love. But… our story teaches that humans wanted to be God, rather than follow God’s way. And this act created evil in our world.

Evil was not a single consequence that fizzled out. Evil was power unleashed. As the Greeks teach, Pandora’s box. A frighting vision, but accurate (The Bible teaches that by submitting to evil, we gave it, Satan, power in this world. “All the world is under the control of the evil one.” — 1John 5:19).

God would not give up on the creation He loved (“Love never fails” 1Cor 13:8). Amidst evil unfettered, God poured good. Yet, He did not fix everything. Why? Wouldn’t a loving God fix all the problems. And here we must go back to God’s creation purpose. He set out to create something “Good”, but this good was to be filled with love. And love is not forced.

So God could not force the fix. For, to paraphrase John 3:16, God so loved the world, He poured out His love, even His life, to save it.

In the face of evil our faith can wither. God’s love resurrects our faith.

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Now… after all this nice and tidy theologizing … reality is messier. In part because we love. And when we love someone who is suffering… God remains powerful (able to bring something from nothing)… we want a miracle.

I can not tell you how many times I have asked God to heal Mike. I am frustrated God has not already done it. My faith wavers. At the beginning of all this God said I am not done with Mike. “So start healing Mike,” my little voice shouts. My cry feels lost in the winds of evil… my anger rises.

It is very easy to allow this to be the only thing I know. The only thing I see. And all the words I typed seem meaningless. My theology trite.

I know my perspective needs to change, but I also know how hard that is in these moments. So when I am in these conversations I try not to ramble. My brilliance has yet to solve any problems. Instead, I just try to love. To follow God’s example and pour myself out. And put my trust in love’s resurrection.