"How can there be so much pain in the world especially now if it's a Divine plan?" Dave
From our individual personalised Ego perspective we only get to see a specific aspect of reality when in fact there is a greater play going on. This bigger play is the Divine unfolding for which it is impossible for us to see from the greater Universal Divine perspective. Because we are compromised by our individualised perspective we don't see the bigger picture or the necessity for such seeming challenging acts.
To get a glimpse of this consider all of the good that emerges in people when others are faced with adversity. Like say when the twin towers were struck there were countless acts of unselfish kindness and empathy by so many people. RR