Suffering and Freedom

Several years ago I preached a series about freedom. Not “fife-and-drum” American freedom, but volitional freedom. Freedom of the will, if you will. Freedom has come to take a central place in my understanding of life. Freedom can help ease the pain and pressure of suffering and bring a sense of reason to what seems senseless. 

Whenever a terrible thing happens, most people try to make sense of it. They ask themselves why it happened; they want to know if there was some greater purpose behind it. This often leads to cloudy thinking, and may actually increase, rather than ease the suffering. The idea of volitional freedom actually helps me make a little sense out of all the garbage that happens in the world, and eases some of the pain when going through tragedy.

Many years ago a two year old at a church I pastored drowned in a creek. His grandmother attributed the cause to God “needing another angel in heaven.” She found comfort in that, and I wasn’t about to take that away from her. But really? “God kills people to populate his home?” I’m not sure what kind of god would do that, but with all due respect, keep that God away from me, please.

Instead, I have found that freedom provides all the reason that’s needed for much of what’s bad in this world. In January of 2017 my nephew died. He was driving fast, under the influence, on a mountain road, didn’t make a curve and ended upside-down in four feet of water. He and his passenger both drowned. He was 26. This was a horrible tragedy. My sister was devastated. Grief ripped through my family like a saw-toothed knife. Why did this happen?

I don’t believe there was anything that “caused” this to happen, apart from freedom. There was no “grand design” that stole my nephew from us. It was not simply “his time to go.” This terrible accident happened because God gave us the freedom to choose what we do. We live in a world where the consequences of our choices really matter. When we choose to drive impaired and too fast on curvy roads, it is possible that we will lose control of our vehicle and … well, you know. 

So much of the suffering I see in the world can be explained by choices that someone has made. Either our own choice or the choice of someone else. None of it has a “reason,” other than that God gave us freedom. What we do matters—eternally, actually. (Of course, other things can cause suffering, but I don’t have time to deal with those here.)

The comfort comes from not having to figure out a “reason” for the bad things that happen. They just do. They come with the territory of life, with being alive and being imperfect in a fallen world. All of us make choices. Some of them hurt us or others. But some choices bless, and that is a comfort. The same freedom that causes so much pain is also the freedom that allows all that is truly good to exist. Without freedom there would be no trust, no affection, no love. The foundation of all meaningful relationships is the freedom we have to enter into them. 

There is a further comfort. God promises to be with us when we suffer in our freedom. No matter how senseless our suffering, God is with us. He sees and knows our suffering; he suffered on the cross. But more importantly, in him we triumph over suffering. In Christ we share the power of his own resurrection! Therein lies our true comfort.

John Swope is an educator and leader offering pastoral care, leadership development, and church consultation through Parhelion Counseling & Care, LLC. He lives by the mantra, “Question everything,” and is known for seeing things from a perspective that others often miss.