The Unanswerable Problem of Pain

Pain, Mystery and the Cross

Man of Sorrows - Geertgen tot Sint Jans - c1485-1495

Over the past few days, I have been reflecting on this quote from C.S. Lewis’s Problem of Pain:

“You would like to know how I behave when I am experiencing pain, not writing books about it. You need not guess, for I will tell you; I am a great coward. But what is that to the purpose? When I think of pain—of anxiety that gnaws like fire and loneliness that spreads out like a desert, and the heartbreaking routine of monotonous misery, or again of dull aches that blacken our whole landscape or sudden nauseating pains that knock a man’s heart out at one blow, of pains that seem already intolerable and then are suddenly increased, of infuriating scorpion-stinging pains that startle into maniacal movement a man who seemed half dead with his previous tortures—it ‘quite o’ercrows my spirit’. If I knew any way of escape I would crawl through sewers to find it. But what is the good of telling you about my feelings? You know them already: they are the same as yours. I am not arguing that pain is not painful. Pain hurts. That is what the word means. I am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine of being made ‘perfect through suffering’10 is not incredible. To prove it palatable is beyond my design.” CS Lewis

We all experience pain.

Some pain and suffering are greater than others, but none of us is immune to the agonizing, unanswerable realities of this life. At times, our wounds come through the sins of others, especially those closest to us. Other times, they come through loss, illness, confusion, and trials. Most of the time, these things make no sense. We have no answers for their causes. We are stunned. Voiceless. We sit in a kind of stupor, wondering what in the world is happening and why.

Let’s be honest: suffering is the ultimate kick in the teeth. It strips away our illusions of control and leaves us poor before Christ. The only thing we can do is cry out.

It may sound cliché, but turning our eyes to Christ is the only thing we can do. Christ is the one who entered suffering freely. As Isaiah says, Christ bore rejection, injustice, and death itself. None of it was deserved. Zilch. Christ not only carried the physical pain, but also the weight of the collective sin of the world. It was an act of total abandonment to God. Christ asks us to do the same, even when we do not understand why. O Lord, why is total surrender so difficult?

Today, may we gaze upon our Lord and pray, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.’

In the holy Eucharist, we can walk through everything life brings our way.

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© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.