What Causes Pain and Suffering?

Pain and suffering, if we could just get rid off those things our world would be so wonderful.We all know that this world is full of suffering, that it isn't really possible to live on this earth without experiencing pain to some degree. Today many of us are blessed to live in countries where there a lot less pain and suffering than there used to be a few hundred years ago, but that doesn't mean that it hurts any less when pain enters our lives. It's so devastating. We all wonder why these things happen, what's the source of all this pain?


If there really is a God then how can he allow all this suffering in the world. The Bible makes it clear that there are two different forces in the world, there is God, and then there is evil. We can call evil the devil or darkness or whatever we like, but we can't fight the fact that evil is real. Wherever there is lack of love evil flourishes. Children who grow up in homes without love doesn't become very nice people to be around. Countries with political systems that aren't based in love aren't very nice places to live. In places and people where there is absence of love there is great darkness.


Although we try to protect ourselves from evil with laws, alarm systems on our homes etc. we are never fully removed from the presence of evil. We live in a world with both good and evil and the only real way to get rid off evil is to "kill it" with love. When we fight evil with more evil it only grows, but when we choose to fight evil with love there will be a little less evil in the world every time.


For as long as we live on this earth we won't be able to escape having to live in the presence of both good and evil, but we can choose in what direction we want to walk. Do we want to spend our lives spreading more love into this world or do we want to practice revenge and other behaviors that only create more evil? It's a hard reality we live in, but we all have to choose what side we want to be on. We can choose to love or we can choose to hate. When we choose to follow God we choose love, because God is love.

"Where there is love, there is God."
Mother Teresa