Waiting

Swinton thinks that asking "Why does a God of love and power allow suffering?" is to ask the wrong question. The right question is:

How can we be enabled to love God and to hold on to the reality that God is love, that God is faithful and that God loves us even in the midst of our sufferings?1

He thinks this question is good because: life isn't about the absence of pain, but about the presence of God and of relationship with him; the question begins from a position of faith; and it stops us from slipping into the idolatory of putting an object - or here a standard - over God.

Swinton then says that the lament(ing) Psalms can teach us how to suffer well. The speaking of these Psalms and their concluding in praise show the faith of their writers. And their honest appraisal of the situation shows . . . their honesty. It's an honesty that hates the pain and sorrow of now, hates the delay - but it's an honesty shot through with sure, bright hope for the future. This trust in a faithful, loving God and hope for the future gives birth to patience. For to suffer well is to be patient.


H/T Sharon


1 J Swinton, "Patience and Lament: Living Faithfully in the Presence of Suffering" in FA Murphy & PG Ziegler (eds), The Providence of God (London: T&T Clark, 2009), 275-87.