The Two Big Potholes

by

Practicing Faith

Oboedire | Aug. 16, 2026

The other day, I failed to see a large pothole in the road, and blammo, it shook the truck with a sudden jolt. It was so hard that I wondered if I needed to take it into the shop and have our mechanic friend check the alignment.

I had this experience during the time I was hitting potholes in my soul, the two biggest ones being (or so it seems to me)—evil and suffering. Both are in the road of life, and they come with spiritual blammos that shake us up, maybe even knock us out of alignment. In some cases, they damage our spiritual vehicles, leaving us in need of repair.

The existence of evil and suffering is a mystery in the context of God’s love and sovereignty, and when we fall prey to them, even a theology of fallenness (Genesis 3) does not eliminate the questions. They simply do not go away

Logic helps a little—that is, in terms of suffering that’s deserved. And it’s true—there is suffering that we bring on ourselves for all sorts of reasons. But this confession still leaves on the table the unanswered question of why so much suffering is undeserved, or as we sometimes ask, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” This is the question that does not go away when we hit the potholes of evil and suffering.

I am writing this at a time when people we know and love are suffering. And the severity is one we feel in a second-hand sense. As we get older, the potholes of suffering appear more in our road, to say nothing of the other roads on the earth today where countless millions experience things they too do not deserve. Even when we avoid them, others do not—and there will be a day when we don’t either.

If you are reading this hoping I am going to pivot in the direction of a solution, you may as well stop here. The potholes of evil and suffering appear in the best-paved roads. And road-repair crews cannot keep up with them. Neither can theologians.

We are left with one word, and it comes from Jesus, “nevertheless.” It’s the word he used in the Garden of Gethsemane when he hit the pothole of his passion, when he faced suffering that was not going to be resolved. It’s not a word of denial; it is a word of intention—to live the questions and to deal with circumstances that do not change.

It is not a solution word, but rather one of serenity (not to be confused with naïve positivity)—a courage to “accept the things I cannot change.” Somehow in the midst of the potholes of evil and suffering, acceptance of the things we cannot change strengthens us in ways denial doesn’t. It kicks a new capacity into play.

This too is mystery, but it is a reality that comes when we say, “nevertheless.” It takes nothing away, but it adds to our suffering an awareness that we are not alone. God is with us (Immanuel) and so too are a host of others willing to walk with us in sufferings we do not deserve and can never explain.

“Nevertheless” does not seem like enough, but it is the word Jesus used it to accept the things he could not change, and it is a word we can use when we hit the potholes we did not see coming. Blammo is not the final word.

The Rev. Dr. Steve Harper is a retired seminary professor who taught for 32 years in the disciplines of Spiritual Formation and Wesley Studies. Author and co-author of more than fifty books.. He is also a retired elder in The Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.