Suffering

Why do I need religion at all? Is it for the weak who cannot think for themselves, or for those who cannot stand the finality of death? You ask my husband if I am weak minded or not an intellectual. I like things to make sense, to find the why behind everything.

One of the hardest things to understand is why a loving God would allow so much suffering. It's a hard question and one that has lead to very serious pondering and research on my part.

There is no feeling more terrible than watching your own child go through pain that you cannot cure or take away. This reason alone is one of the greatest factors for why I love God whom I call my Heavenly Father. When my son lay on a hospital bed, pale as a ghost from pain, it was almost more than I could handle.

My Heavenly Father watched His only begotten son, Jesus Christ be born into an unhealthy circumstance (in a manger) and suffer like no other human being ever has, no-one even coming within light years of his pain. So why did he allow his perfect son to suffer so herendously? It doesn't make sense, He's God, He had power to help and save His Son.

He sees the bigger picture. If God had interveened, our lives would be for naught. I'll be the first to admit that pain and suffering stinks, it's hard to go through and even harder to understand that somehow it will end up strengthening us or becoming a catalyst for the better, especially when you're in the middle of it.

In the depths of my pain is when I have known Him the best, when I have needed Him the most, and when I have been the most grateful. Suffering makes us change, it makes us look at our lives and our actions more closely, we start to cut out the fat, let the fringe fall away and are reminded of what is most important.

We love more deeply, spend more time with our family and friends; appreciating them more because we are reminded how fragile life is.

There are horrible, terrible things that happen to people and I have shed many tears over the suffering of the innocent, especially children. It breaks my heart, and makes me ill. But in my prayers for them, I have had comfort, and Heavenly Father has reminded me that they are His children and He loves them more than I am capable of. My trust in Him, and my faith that His ways are higher than my ways is based on my personal experiences of becoming stronger, and those around me who have experienced the same.