The Problem of Pain

In the Problem of Pain Lewis talks about what does the goodness of God look like? As we have seen in a recent chapel video that asked who God was, many people used one word to describe him and that is love. Lewis would agree with this—that the goodness of God is love. Where people often misinterpret love is in saying that love is kindness. This is where we run into the problem of pain; if we associate God’s character with goodness and goodness with love and love with kindness, then Gods love can only be shown through kind acts, any other unkind acts must come from some other external source—this is Manichaeism or dualism (both of which have been denounced by the Church.) If our God is the kind loving best friend God, than there is no room for discipline, pain, suffering, rejection, and torment. Who would want to have a best friend that did these things to us? Lewis says that “God is both further from us, and nearer to us, than any other being.” God knows us so well, each and every breath that we take he knows “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” Yet “In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” Again we are so close yet so far from Him.