A few questions on that note, just to get some wheels spinning:
1. How do we determine what is good?
2. Why do we think we deserve only good things to happen and not receive punishment while we continue to sin?
Increasingly, I am drawn to the setting that C.S. Lewis created about how we should view this world. He says, "Imagine a set of people all living in the same building. Half think it is a hotel, the other half think it is a prison. Those who think it a hotel might regard it as quite intolerable, and those who thought it was a prison might decide that it was really surprisingly comfortable. So that what seems the ugly doctrine is one that comforts and strengthens you in the end."
I love the wisdom of C.S. Lewis. It is so simple, and yet, I never thought of that until I read his essay. Now I think of that hotel/prison scene a lot. Basically he says the moment you are in trouble if you realize it as a punishment, it becomes easier to bear. The wisdom of the Bible is there, too, for us to learn from. Perhaps the story of Job can help us understand why God allows suffering. Evil entered this world, which God allowed to happen. And with that, God allowed free-will because He knows that a forced love is not true. Therefore, we all have to make choices that draw us closer to God or closer to Satan.
God allowed Satan to plague Job with suffering, and Job had the choice of keeping faith in God, or letting it all fall by the wayside. This story shows that the love of God is stronger than anything Satan may be able to devise against us. Job may not have understood why it was happening, but God pointed out that he didn't need to. Job is not God. God is the only one who knows and understands everything. All the moving parts are moving by the fingers of God.
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