The problem of pain

There's a popular worship song which has a line in it that sticks. I was reminded of it this morning by a friend who blogged about a particularly difficult situation she's facing. The line is "You give and take away, you give and take away, still my heart will say: Lord, blessed be your name."

Two years on, I still can't sing that line. When it comes up in worship, I think about Zoe, and I wonder. I couldn't bless God then, and I've only recently got to the point of being able to that God is still good. When I do, I still feel the gravity of what I'm actually saying - that even though God chose to let Zoe die, even though he took her away, even though he broke my heart forever, even though he permits horrible atrocities to be perpetrated against the innocents (children) he is still good.

The fact that others seem to be able to sing that line so glibly sometimes annoys me, because it seems they obviously have either forgotten, or never really experienced, a Job* moment, or that the suffering of children and those who love them is of little consequence.

I don't think there are any answers to the problem of pain, despite what C.S. Lewis and other luminaries say. It just is. And God is still good. I know people think Christians are crazy for believing that in the face of the suffering and cruelty in the world. Yet, in the words of Peter - Jesus has the words of life, to whom else shall we go?

* Job is a character in the Bible who lost all his children (if memory serves - 12) in a natural disaster, suffered a horrible skin disease (so much so that he was the outcast from society) and lost all his possessions. Even his wife gave up on him. He sat in the dirt and blamed God. Yet, he was still able to say that God was still sovreign and therefore worthy of praise. After quite a long time, and an encounter with God, he was healed and got on with his life - recovering his wealth and having another 12 kids. I often wonder though whether he ever stopped grieving his first brood, or wondering why God allowed it to happen. We, as the readers, are told the reason, but he is never given that luxury.