Earlier this week, my 21-year-old daughter texted me a hard question. She had been following the trial of the former FedEx driver convicted of kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Athena Strand.
“Why does God allow such evil like that to happen? She was just a little girl. If God is all-powerful, why wouldn’t he prevent things like this from happening? I have a hard time accepting that.”
I understood exactly what she meant. As a mother and a pastor, I have asked the same question many times. Her text wasn’t theoretical — she was asking how a person of faith makes sense of suffering that feels unbearable.
“Here is what I believe, baby girl,” I replied. “First, it’s important to remember that God does not want evil to happen. But evil is a reality in this world, and for some reason I don’t understand, God allows it. I think the reason is somehow related to our freedom and will, but I’m not sure. I also try to remember that God will not allow evil to have the last word, but that God’s power has assured the ultimate victory of the good.”
“But that is probably little comfort right now, isn’t it? Here is what helps me —Jesus, who suffered himself, is always very near to those who suffer. That little girl wasn’t alone; I believe Jesus was with her. The Bible tells us over and over again that Jesus is near the needy and the suffering.”
“I’m mad at God for allowing stuff like this to happen,” she replied.
“I’m mad at God for allowing stuff like this to happen…”
“It’s okay to be mad at God. But I think we are supposed to take that anger to God in prayer. Here is what I love about the Bible: the psalms, in particular, are full of people crying out to God in anger, pain, and any other emotion you can imagine. Being angry with God in prayer is a faithful response because it takes seriously the reality that God is there and hears us. Don’t let your anger separate you from God; take it to God. God can handle it. You may not get any answers, but I think you will get some peace.”
Lament has a long tradition in the Bible. Psalm 88 is a good example: it is an outpouring of words about how God has forgotten the psalmist and how the psalmist’s very soul is full of trouble. Most psalms of lament end with some sort of affirmation of God’s goodness even in the midst of trouble, but not Psalm 88. It is just eighteen verses of pain and disorientation brought before God.
There is also Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. Facing the pain and evil of the cross, Jesus prays to God for the cup to pass him if it be God’s will. We are told in Mark’s gospel that Jesus is “deeply grieved, even to death” (Mark 14:34). Yet in this moment, when Jesus is his most human, he takes his grief to God. He models for us the faithful response of prayer when the suffering and evil of the world grieve us.
I worry that … we have forgotten that prayers can also be full of anger and lamentation.
I worry that in the church we have become so accustomed to prayers of adoration, praise and intercession that we have forgotten that prayers can also be full of anger and lamentation. In these difficult prayers, God can meet us and guide us back to the peace that comes from the knowledge that God abhors suffering and evil, too, and that God is with us in our grief and anger.
Don’t we all struggle with the problem of evil in the world? Doesn’t every aware person grieve the horrid reality of this life at times? I know I do. And I am grateful to my daughter, who reminded me this week to take it all to God in prayer. God can handle it.
