There is no greater challenge to our faith than the problem of pain and suffering in the world. How can I believe in a God who is all-loving and all-powerful when there are so many evil and twisted things that happen every day?
Our connection to the entire world in an instant through social media only serves to multiply our exposure to evil. We are blitzed with death, illness, injustice, war, senseless crime, and the list goes on.
The question of pain hits me more deeply when suffering and loss invade my world. Many have had their faith shaken to the core when tragedy or loss come barging in unwanted to their lives. This pain can bring hardness to our souls. A gloom can hover over our lives that is hard to shake off.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was arguably the most famous American poet of the 19th century. One of Longfellow’s most outstanding works was Paul Revere’s Ride.
Longfellow’s life was marked by tragedy. He experienced a series of painful losses. In 1831, Longfellow married the love of his life, Mary.
In 1835, however, Mary suddenly died of a miscarriage. Longfellow was heart-broken and wrote these words: “One thought occupies me night and day … She is dead – She is dead! All day I am weary and sad.”
Three years later, he was inspired to write the poem “Footsteps of Angels” about her. This helped him process his loss.
Longfellow began bouncing back. He sought a courtship with Francis Appleton. However, Longfellow was rebuffed by Francis, who had no interest in a relationship with him. This rejection caused him to spiral downward.
Longfellow “fell into periods of neurotic depression with moments of panic.” He ended up needing to take a six-month leave of absence from his teaching position at Harvard University.
Stunningly a couple of years later, Francis [Fanny] wrote him and agreed to marry him. His heart overflowed with joy, and he wrote of his love for her in his only love poem, “The Evening Star.”
Longfellow and Fanny were blessed with six children during their 18 years of marriage. On July 9, 1861, Fanny was putting the locks of her children in envelopes for antiquity. She was attempting to seal the envelopes with hot wax.
Somehow, her dress brushed up against the candle and ignited. Longfellow, who was in the other room, heard her screams and rushed to help her.
He first tried to extinguish the flames of her dress with a small carpet but was unsuccessful. He then tried to stifle them by hugging her with his own body.
However, Fanny was so severely burned that she died the next morning. Longfellow could not attend her funeral because he was hospitalized with severe wounds.
Longfellow again plummeted into despair. As he struggled with his loss, our nation became inflamed with a civil war. His son was wounded in the war.
Things looked dark. There was no hope. There was no peace.
On Christmas Day of 1863, something happened. Longfellow used the gift that God had given him and wrote a poem as he wrestled with his grief. The poem was eventually put to music.
On that day, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem: “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on Earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on Earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on Earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on Earth, good-will to men!”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on Earth, good-will to men.”
God is not dead! God does not sleep! God came to Earth as a baby born in Bethlehem.
The angels that announced His birth to the lowly shepherds said: Do not be afraid! I bring you Good News that will bring great joy to all people. For to you in the City of David is born to you, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
The sky lit up with a heavenly song, and the angels began praising God by saying: “Glory to God in the highest. And peace on Earth! Good will to all mankind!”
So, what is the answer to the question of pain and suffering? There is no simple answer to this complex question.
“But one thing we do know is that God took our pain and misery so seriously that He took it upon Himself.”
God did not stand aloof. He came into the middle of our misery. He was on a mission to restore what was lost.
The Christian faith asserts that we have a God with scars. The little infant in Bethlehem grew up to become a man who offered Himself to be unjustly executed. He was like a lamb being taken to the slaughter. Yet, he entered into suffering and came out on the other side as the victor.
This gives me hope that in the middle of my pain, I have a God who has been there.
Dorothy Sayers was a British crime writer and poet. She says this of the suffering of Jesus:
“For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is— limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace all for us and thought it well worthwhile.”
Speaking of the work of Jesus Christ, the writer of the Epistle of Hebrews says these words:
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
In his classic book on pain and suffering, Timothy Keller writes, “God is so committed to your ultimate joy that he was willing to plunge into the greatest depths of suffering Himself for you.”
I bring you good tidings of great joy. Unto you is born in Bethlehem, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in the Highest. May His peace fill your heart in the middle of your pain. He is good!
