The gift that no one wants. But it is only with pain that allows for our attention that is crucial to our recovery. Otherwise, any signals will simply be ignored.
Pain is not an unpleasantness to be avoided at all costs. In a thousand ways large and small, pain serves us each day, making possible life on this planet. If we are healthy, pain cells alert us when to go to the bathroom, when to change shoes, when to loosen the trip on a mop handle or rake, when to blink. Without pain, we would lead lives of paranoia, defenseless against unfelt dangers. The only safe environment for a painless person is to stay in bed all day.
When you have no experience of pain, it is rather hard to experience joy. I now understand that now - like a weightlifter who strains himself carrying the weight - finally being ably to put it down gives him intense ecstasy. Someone deprived of oxygen will feel immense relief when he finally lifts his head out of the water to breathe.
It is difficult for our loving creator to create a perfect universe.
If I break my leg skiing I might wish for stronger bones. Perhaps bone could have been made stronger (though scientists have not been able to find a stronger, suitable substance for implantations), but then my legs would be made thicker and heavier, probably making me too bulky and inert to ski at all.
Somehow, pain and suffering multiplied on earth as a consequence of abide of human freedom. When man and woman chose against God, their free world was forever spoilt. As Paul sees it, since the Fall the planet and all it's inhabitants have been emitting a constant stream of low-frequency distress signals.
Thus, any discussion of the unfairness of suffering must begin with the fact that God is not pleased with the condition of the planet either. The story of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the story of God's plan to restore his creation to its original state of perfection. The Bible starts and ends with the same scene: Paradise, a river, the luminous glory of God, and the tree of life.
To judge God solely by the present world would be a tragic mistake. At one time, the universe God created may be 'the best of all possible worlds' but surely it is not now. The Bible communicates no message with more certainty than God's displeasure with the state if creation and humanity.
That this world spoiled by evil and suffering still exists at all is an example of God's mercy, not his cruelty. God had already hung a condemned sign above earth, and has promised judgement and restoration.
The existence of suffering is a scream to all of us that something is wrong. It halts us in our tracks and forces us yo consider other values.
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