Why God, is there suffering in this world???

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

On Saturday, I attended a small gathering of friends. It was a good time that began with a picnic at the Como Zoo pavilion with lots of conversations and catching up on memories. Our group had this pavilion only until 2 pm when another larger group celebrating family and their connection to their beloved Rondo neighborhood.

Earlier, I picked up a large sheet cake with the words, 'celebrating family and love' to honor those we were getting together with at this park. We realized that there was far more cake that any of us could ever eat.

As 2:00 pm approached I met some of the participants at the next gathering. One African American man named Ronald said through ancestral research that one of their friends had done revealed they were able to trace their 3 families back before slavery. I shook his hand while giving him eye contact and wanting to know more about the origination of their event.

As we moved our belongings from the shelter we were at to a picnic bench beneath a tree I reflected on the uneaten cake and had an idea. 

I decided to make my pitch with our group regarding donating the rest of our 'Celebrating family and love' cake to the Rondo gathering since they too were celebrating family and love. Everyone liked the idea. I picked up the cake and walked over to one of the gentlemen in this group and explained that we had far too much cake for our group to consume and wanted to share it with their group, pointing to the Celebrate family and love inscription on the cake. Several of them graciously thanked me for this contribution.

Fast forward and now we're eating dinner in a Green Mill restaurant. One individual in our group began talking about mindfulness and making a partial living reading astrological signs to people. I was tired of always being told my worldview was obsolete and  decided to share my worldview about God coming down to earth in the form of a baby boy named Jesus and growing in stature, learning the struggles of life on earth and teaching people about the truth of God's word before being judged, sentenced  and dying on the cross for us all n order to provide a way for all of our sins's to be forgiven through his death and resurrection and that Jesus Christ is very much alive changing lives even today when they have a personal encounter with Him.  Then I added that it was in 1974 when I prayed to individually receive Christ into my heart where I sense the very presence of Jesus- even when bad things happen.

Later that night I read Hebrews 11 commonly known as the hall of faith. In the very first verse of Hebrews are these words, Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Then the chapter goes on reveals the faith of men and woman in the bible. Then there were countless others revealed at the end of that chapter who suffered for Jesus:

"But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection.36 Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. 37 Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half,[d] and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. 38 They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. "

As I reflected on the large Rondo group of families celebrating family and love, I thought about their own unjust suffering at the hands of people who saw themselves as righteous, but who were evil on the inside.

When we accuse God of the evil in this world, we are judging God based on how he carries out OUR agenda when we should look at ourselves as the reason for God's judgment. Then I read Mark 7:21-23 about the heart of men- For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, those evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.

To understand why there is pain and suffering and all things evil, we must look inside of us because when we do we can see how accepting Jesus Christ into our hearts is a start toward changing the world- something as simple as bringing a large sheet cake over to 3 Rondo families celebrating family and love.