The Problem of Evil

Dear Readers:

This blog expresses some of the concerns and feelings associated with chronic illnesses and other laments under the sun, east of Eden, and before the Second Coming. Some of you may be interested in my chapter on the problem of evil in my new book, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (InterVarsity Press, 2011). You can look over some of the contents of the book on Amazon and also on Google books.

Even despite my darkest laments, I remain convinced that Christianity is objectively true, rational, and pertinent to all of life--laments and the rest.

Best,

Doug Groothuis

Habakkak 3:17-19

¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.

¹⁹ The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.

Habbakak 3:17-19

¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.

¹⁹ The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.

Love Hopes All Things

Smiles, distant.

Frowns, constant.

Life, lamentable.

Much, regrettable.

Hope,

heavy with

past pain.

Love,

struggling with

the strain.

Faith,

reaching ahead

to seek gain.

How?

How do you live with someone who is chronically ill and chronically depressed?

How do you keep your balance, not give up, not pull away from the one suffering so?

How can you embrace the pain, misery, and pathetic state of this fellow human being without being dragged into a pit in which you both drown?

Rue

Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.--Ecclesiastes 8:17-18.

One of the crushing burdens of chronic illness is the gnawing feeling that you do not have enough information or are not intelligent enough to manage the illnesses, to consider all the options aright, to make the right decisions.

Things are so damn complicated--and everything is connected to everything else. You make the best choice you can. Then you rue the day.

Then you rue the day--day after day...until another significant decision needs to be made.

Fog bank

The suffering of others clings to me

like the moisture of a thick fog.

But it will not dry off.