Space for suffering?
Anna-Claar Thomasson-Rosingh considers God’s silence and spaciousness in the face of suffering
AS A VOLUNTEER CHAPLAIN at Dungavel Immigration Detention Centre - where human suffering is palpable - I have a corridor conversation. The person I am talking with has seen too many innocents suffer. They cannot believe in God anymore. I ask whether they have spoken with God about this issue. ‘A lot’ is the answer. I ask how God has responded. They declare that there is no response, God is silent, totally absent, and that is why they don’t believe there is a good God. God does not answer because God does not exist. I think of Jesus: ‘My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me’ (Mark 15:34). I think of Job: ‘For my sighing comes like my bread and my groanings are poured out like water’ (Job 3:24). I think of my own anger with God. But I am silent too. Jesus, Job and me, we have all heard God respond to innocent suffering, but the responses we have heard are unexpected, surprising, mysterious even. They are not easily explored in the corridor.
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