My Life After My Father

Christianity answers suffering by allowing Christians to understand why evil dominates and how resisting the temptations will end with forgiveness.

May 15, 2014 I hear my grandpa calling my name from my room upstairs. I walk down stairs and he tells me my dad’s had an accident. At this point I think my dad’s dead, because of how my grandpa word’s it, and my initial shock, but he’s alive. He was living in Virginia with my sister when it happened, so we leave for Virginia that night. We make it there the next afternoon and I finally get to see my dad. It was a challenge seeing a loved one with hundreds of tubes coming out of them, hearing that he might not make it through the night, and if he does he might not be able to see and so on. Seeing what at this point didn’t even really resemble my dad was very challenging.

Human suffering is universal and inescapable. When there is joy, there is pain waiting to happen. When there is pain, an individual always tries to escape it. Humans are faced with hardships in life, and along with those hardships come emotional distress and pain. Humans attempt to understand the reasoning for suffering, the inflicting pain and stress that they have to endure. Humans cannot resolve their own problems, they turn to God or another form of religion to answer questions about the imperfections of life. The complexity of human suffering is hard to grasp because of its infinite forms, which makes it difficult to escape from.

The most significant period of suffering I have gone through was when I lost my grandfather. I remember we had celebrated his 50th birthday never did imagine it would be the last. That horrible news impacts my life forever realizing that we don’t count for a tomorrow. His death was suddenly due to an embolism. His death caused me a lot of suffering because he was not sick and we had made a lot of plans. I did not know how to deal with his death because I was heartbroken. I wonder and questioned if maybe only God had given us a warning. I did not know how to manage my grief and mourned for him because I was angry with God. It took me time to understand that it was God’s will and that his soul had returned to God. I learned that his death of the body was not the end of his life (Rubin & Yasien-Esmael, 2004). I found comfort in the midst of suffering by finding acceptance in God. Also, I found praying for him and sharing my suffering with others helped me console my pain. I learn that “the lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit,” which help my relationship with God grow as my pain slowly vanished.

Briefly summarize the Christian worldview’s response to the problem of evil and suffering. Cite and reference the lecture and/or Chapter 9 in the textbook. The Christian’s response to the problem of evil and suffering is that it is not what God had originally intended for the world. God had wanted the world to be a place of peace and perfect communion with Him

The Christian view of evil and suffering is probably what most are familiar with. Christians believe that some suffering is because of evil, caused by sin and disobedience from God, and is entirely intentional, called ‘Moral suffering’. So how do Christians justify or explain suffering? While there are many theories, the most widely accepted, coined by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, is that due to the fact we have free will, we have the potential to choose evil, and suffering is the result of that choice. However, suffering is not senseless, as shown in this verse from Romans: “More than

Why Do Humans Suffer? Is it possible to maintain religious faith in the face of suffering? Describe the ways in which TWO explanations of suffering respond in thought and action to the experience of suffering.   Guide Theists believe in the existence of at least one god who intervenes in the universe and may also be a creator god. (Believers)

Suffering performs a significant function in numerous religions, concerning situations like: consolation or relief; moral behavior, spiritual development through life difficulties or through self-enforced trials, and final destiny. It is supplemented in the Hebrew Bible by the verses found in the Book of Isaiah and the Book of Jeremiah. They detail the emotional and physical suffering of a defeated nation with its vanquished residents compelled into the suffering of expulsion and confinement in a foreign nation. In the New Testament, suffering is depicted in the life of Jesus, which recounts the suffering of the crucifixion, and in the Easter story. The suffering connected with punishment is additionally depicted in the Apocalypse of John where suffering at the setting of the Last Judgment is portrayed as the just compensation for sin and unlawful activity. Pope John Paul II wrote "On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering." This article focuses on the idea of redemptive suffering. “The parable of the Good Samaritan belongs to the Gospel of suffering. For it indicates what the relationship of each of us must be towards our suffering neighbour…This is the meaning of suffering, which is truly supernatural and at the same time human. It is supernatural because it is rooted in the Divine mystery of the Redemption of the world…deeply human, because in it the person discovers himself, his own humanity, his own dignity, his own mission.”

In Christianity, we suffer in order to help us grow as people, to easily empathise with one another and to bring us closer to God. The purpose of suffering is to ensure that we are constantly growing into better people removing the weakness and immaturity and sins from us. Suffering is used to encourage us to become better people and to move away from sin. This concept of pruning is shown in 2 Corinthians 1:7 “Our hope for you is firm, for we know that as you share in the sufferings, you also share in the encouragement.”.

The topic of suffering sometimes emerges after other objections to the Christian faith have been

The concept of suffering plays an important role in Christianity, regarding such matters as moral conduct, spiritual advancement and ultimate destiny. Indeed an emphasis on suffering pervades the Gospel of Mark where, it can be argued, we are shown how to “journey through suffering” (Ditzel 2001) in the image of the “Suffering Son of Man” (Mark 8:32), Jesus Christ. Although theologians have suggested that Mark was written to strengthen the resolve of the early Christian community (Halpern 2002, Mayerfeld 2005), the underlying moral is not lost on a modern reader grappling with multifarious challenges regarding faith in the face of suffering. In his article “A Christian Response to

The term suffering can be defined as any unwanted condition and the corresponding negative emotion. It is usually associated with pain and unhappiness, but any condition can be described as suffering. Christians suffer throughout the world everyday and it is not through their lack of faith. Christians under Nero were persecuted for their faith in God, through this suffering God promised them a place in his kingdom. God also promises us a place in his kingdom, even though throughout our lives we will face the good times and the bad, God is always with us. Others believe that since God is a ‘good God' why does all this suffering exist? We don't know the answer to this but perhaps some people become better people through suffering.

A very critical question that has been used as a method to form a challenge for Christianity is why is there suffering in the world? Why does God allow it happen if he loves us very much? Firstly we must comprehend that God doesn’t turn a blind eye to suffering due to the fact that it wasn’t God’s intention for suffering to exist. His justification was to give rise to a world that was established by free will To try to answer this, we must realize that there are many interpretations and forms to the term suffering. As a society, we witness the widespread effects of poverty, war and persecution as the main structure of suffering. However, there is a personal level to suffering that contributes to a more distinct interaction with God.

Since Adam and Eve’s sin, suffering has become an inevitable aspect of life. It became an inescapable part of living in this world. God does not even spare his faithful servants from it. If we view suffering as only pain and hardship and forget to view the positive side of suffering with Christ, we become consumed by the suffering and would not learn anything from it. However, viewing suffering positively only is in the sense deceiving ourselves. There should be a balance between the two; suffering is educational, but if we don’t view suffering as it is, we will not learn anything from suffering. How does one learn without recognizing one’s mistake? Similarly, we will not learn from our suffering if we do not recognize it as suffering.

Where I have come from goes back generations for me, where I am from is based off of what my family has gone through and how they have used their experience to teach me. Through my family I now understand that where I come from means the way my parents raised me and why. One very important figure in my life who makes me who I am is my dad. My dad has been through a lot of good and bad times in his life, he has many experiences some in which I hope to recreate for myself and others I would only hope I would never have to go through. Talking to has given me specific experiences that when I look back at have really changed me and prove to me where I am from. Another person who has given me experiences that have helped me learn where I am from