Love & Suffering
A Personal Letter from Stan Balcom Part 2
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to my belief in God was the reality of suffering. The world seemed filled with wars, disasters, disease, poverty, hate, and cruelty. In the 1970s, it was common for evangelists to stop me on the street asking if I’d heard the “good news.” When they began talking about a loving God who gave His only Son, I could only stare in disbelief.
“Good news? Loving God? Really?” I would say. “There’s no God—and if there is, He’s certainly not loving. How could anyone who loves us create a world like this?”
They usually walked away. And I never heard an answer that made sense.
Friends would tell me, “You don’t have it so bad—you have so much to be thankful for.” I hated that. To me, it meant that suffering was acceptable as long as it happened to someone else.
But over time, through years of living, working, and trying to help others—both at home and overseas—I began to see something deeper. No matter where I went, every human being wanted the same three things: to love, to be loved, and to have a purpose. And that realization became the turning point in my thinking. If we all hunger for love, could it be that we were made that way on purpose? Scripture says that we were. “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’” (Genesis 1:26, NKJV).
We were created by Love, for love. It is our design. Jesus confirmed this when He said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37–39, NKJV).
Love, then, is not just an emotion—it’s the essence of who God is and what we are meant to reflect. But love cannot exist without choice. It must be given freely, sacrificially, and without coercion. That freedom—the ability to choose love—also gives us the ability to reject it. And therein lies the problem.
God created a good world where love could flourish. But humanity chose self over God. We used our free will to elevate ourselves, to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and to decide right and wrong for ourselves.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12, NKJV).
Through that choice, evil and suffering entered the human story. Yet God did not abandon us to it. His love is not proven by the absence of suffering but by His presence in it. He did not stand apart from our pain—He entered it.
“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15, NKJV).
He did not explain suffering—He suffered. The cross of Christ proves that divine love is not a theory but a costly act.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
(Romans 5:8, NKJV).
Through Him, suffering is transformed. It no longer defines us—it refines us. It builds endurance, compassion, and faith.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
(Romans 8:28, NKJV).
Joseph, who suffered betrayal and slavery, could say to his brothers, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.” (Genesis 50:20, NKJV).
God’s plan is not to let suffering continue forever. Pain is temporary; love is eternal. Scripture promises a day when “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying… for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4, NKJV).
Until that day, His love sustains us with hope. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18, NKJV).
In the end, I came to believe—not because all my questions were answered—but because love itself was the answer. The love I sought in people, the love that endured through pain, the love that chose to suffer rather than abandon—it all pointed to God.
“The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.”
(Psalm 34:18, NKJV)
I once rejected the idea of a loving God because I saw only suffering in the world. But over time, I realized that our deepest human desire—to love and be loved—reflects the very image of God who created us. Love requires free will, and through that freedom came both sin and suffering. Yet God did not abandon us; He entered our pain through Christ, showing that love is proven not by avoiding suffering, but by enduring it for others. In His hands, pain becomes purpose, and what was meant for evil becomes good. I now believe because love itself led me to God—the One whose love never fails and will one day wipe away every tear.
—Stan
