Category: Suffering

Recently there has been a lot of focus on Assisted Dying as it was debated in the House of Lords.

Seeing things through human eyes often misses the point of suffering. It is easy to see why, when seeing a loved one suffer, when all hope of a life without pain and dignity is gone, that we feel the best outcome is for a dignified and peaceful end. It is often said that we would put a dog down long before now to lessen its suffering. It is thought to be the best humane approach and yet we allow our loved ones to suffer on.

We are however not dogs and we possess a soul which lives on eternally after our body’s demise. Suffering, we forget aids the forgiveness of sin, remember how Christ suffered for us. It is this time while we suffer that our sins and the sins of our loved ones can be forgiven. When we go down the assisted dying route we deny that person the opportunity to suffer for their sins.

God also judges the relatives of the suffering person, what was their response were they willing to suffer to aid that person through time given up. Did they do the God like approach to the suffering one or turn away.

Assisted dying like Abortion is taking away God’s domain over life and death and putting into our hands.

The Train Journey

By Louis de Berniers

Author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Today I read how Louis de Berniers lost his faith in God after a train journey accident as a young man.

The story goes that he went to Columbia at 19 years old and was on a train from Bogata, where he was sat next to a young lady of similar age who was very flirty, they got on very well against the back drop of a language barrier.

After some time the girl (Maria) suggested she get some drinks and wouldn’t accept Louis’s attempts to pay. Now this meant going from one carriage to another to get to the drinks carriage. This was in the 1970’s and Columbia was far from being an affluent country quite the opposite, so the railway lines were in a poor state with only urgent maintenance being performed. the train would generally bump and Jolt through its journey.

To get from one carriage to another meant the performance of a precarious step between the carriages. At the time Maria made her step the train jolted and she fell to the side and suffered horrific injuries from which she died some two hours later.

This had a profound effect on Louis and made him question his faith in God. How cruel can God be to let this happen to such a young girl who he had spent a very pleasant few hours getting to know.

He ends his narrative by asking to meet with God in an ally where he would ask him where he was when Maria died?

Well this story is indeed tragic, happenings like this have the capacity can challenge anyone’s belief in God. But is God to blame? What would God say in response?

In these deliberations we are essentially putting God in the dock and applying our morals and our laws of righteousness, which, when compared to God’s purity and ultimate knowledge of everything is completely flawed

There could be many approaches to this so we shall put a couple here.

The Girl was unknown to Louis but for a few hours but would be well known to God, nobody knows when or how God will call a soul back to himself. God could know that the Girl left to continue through life would have moved into sin and thereby be further away from God, so by taking her soul now she could be saved.

“What did it profit the man who gained the whole world yet suffered the loss of his soul”.

It is also necessary in these cases to go back to the basics. In the beginning we were given free will, but we knew God. God wasn’t distant, God was with us everyday. We chose by our actions to do things our way an accept Satan into our lives.

So God allows us to live in our man made world where we have total freedom to do as we like ( Only our own laws to monitor our behaviour ). We have made a world of Have and Have-nots. A world dominated by Greed, Sex and Power.

Columbia in the 1970’s one of the have-nots of this world, struggling to maintain a railway which in other parts of the world would be condemned. So is it God’s fault that man built a railway not fit for purpose and within that design allowed passengers to make a precarious jump from one carriage to another?

God’s defence could run something like Man’s fall from grace is the Tragedy! Man wanted to go it alone and embrace all that the evil one has to offer, God gave us a roadmap back to God that only a few have accepted. If man puts greed before safety, tragic instances will follow.

I gave you freedom to choose, use it well.

You have made your own world.