“If God loves us so much then why does He let horrible things happen?”
A few days ago, I was asked this question and it has stuck with me since. I'll be the first to admit to struggling with my faith, particularly during times of strife.
There have been many instances in my life where I've grown angry at God and began to question His love for me, especially when my prayers went unanswered and my struggles continued to mount. Perhaps you asked yourself the same question after seeing the tears fall from the faces of the families ripped apart at the hands of Omar Mateen earlier this month.
So why did God let the gunman kill 49 men and women? In layman terms, I don't believe He “let” the gunman do anything. The gunman acted on the same free will instill within every human being on this Earth; the same free will that led Martin Luther King Jr. to spark the dismemberment of an inhumane society and the same free will that brought America to its knees on September 11, 2001.
Nowhere in the Bible did God promise His children a perfect world free of suffering.
In fact, there are many scriptures within the Bible warning of suffering, such as John 16:33 which states, “In the world, you shall have tribulation, but take heart because He has overcome the world.” However, foresight into a sinful world doesn't justify the conclusion that God is pulling the puppet string behind every tragedy.
The Bible indicates that God understood the consequence of humanity's gift of free will; God knew free will would yield individualized results that may reflect His likeness and may also reflect pure sin. To summarize in “Sunday school” terms, because God knew that humankind was not capable of living in His likeness, He sent His son to die so that we may be forgiven and reunited in heaven once we repent and lay our sins at His feet.
However, more often than not the harmful actions of others have a tendency to ripple outwards, drowning anyone in its path. One man shot and killed 49 people in a span of a few hours; that one man will also cause a lifetime of pain for the thousands who knew and loved each of the men and women killed in Pulse nightclub on June 12, 2016.
You may think it's not fair that thousands of people will suffer at the hands of one dead man and you're right. Unfair things happen every single day on our planet, from wars and famine to cancer, they affect the best and worst of people. Pain and tragedy have no bias and I agree that it's not fair.
But God didn't promise a fair life. What He did promise was an eternity of bliss beyond imagination and a deliverance from pain. Psalm 34:19 says, “The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all.”
God sacrificed the life of His one and only son to ensure that every freewill-driven sin may be forgiven through repentance so that we may spend eternity in His grace. While God isn't in heaven sending the waves to cause catastrophe, He is there holding the ultimate lifesaver to save us from our own sea of sins.
