Resources by Topic: Suffering and Evil

To ignore someone’s pain is to add to that pain. Instead of fearing we’ll say the wrong thing, we should reach out to hurting people. Many times it’s better just to put our arms around someone and cry with them; people almost always appreciate it when you acknowledge their loss. 

Two segments from the novel Safely Home, by Randy Alcorn

This world is the closest thing to heaven unbelievers will ever experience, and the closest thing to hell believers will ever know. 

From Lord Foulgrin’s Letters, a novel by Randy Alcorn
(inspired by C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters)

Diane’s conversion took my breath away. Only Elyon’s Spirit can pierce the hard shell of their hearts. When she accepted His gift and asked His forgiveness, Elshar and I embraced.

They drove wordlessly to the retirement center to see Diane’s mother. Diane had asked Jordan to come. He said yes, hating that he hadn’t seen his mother-in-law for nearly a year, and hating that he didn’t want to see her now.

If Jordan Fletcher wasn’t happy, it was only because he needed something else-someone else or someplace else. 

These are some passages to study, meditate on and memorize. Some of these aren’t new to you, but they have a cumulative force as they touch different aspects of our struggles and God’s counsel to us.

When we lock our eyes on our cancer, arthritis, fibromyalgia, diabetes, or disability, self-pity and bitterness can creep in. When we spend our days rehearsing the tragic death of a loved one, we will interpret all life through the darkness of our suffering. How much better when we focus upon Jesus!

In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

The fallow field is smug, contented, protected from the shock of the plow and the agitation of the harrow...But it is paying a terrible price for its tranquility.

Daniel Traugott was a 13-year-old boy who died in a car accident, leaving behind his mother, father and four siblings. His mother, Sandy, sent us the following poems she wrote that reflect two different perspectives on his death. (Reprinted with permission.)

What, after all, is more universal to human experience than suffering? And what is more important than the perspective we bring to it?

Wicca prides itself in being a diverse movement.