God doesn't cause suffering.

The best I can figure is that God doesn't cause us to suffer, but he doesn't prevent us from suffering. He's created a world where suffering is possible and given us his only son as the means to bear, subsume, transcend it. Not on the off chance we'll find redeption, but because in a world without suffering--without consequences for our actions--free will would have no meaning; without suffering we would have no reason, opportunity, or motive to love.

I don't believe God wills that I get cancer (and that you maybe don't), though I do notice he created us with bodies that are subject to disease, accident, and aging, and become absorbed in wondering why. I don't believe God killed the other person in the plane crash and saved me, but since it so happens that I was spared, the least i can do is give thanks, and spend the rest of my time on earth trying to help out a little.

Source: Redeemed, Viking Press, 2008; page 194.