It seems that no one has seen the face of God
directly. Most of us believe there is some kind of God, who
established the many forms of life on Earth, and organized physical forces of
great complexity, which generally give predictable results in their actions
---- there seems to be some order in our universe.
However, despite this, sometimes a person does contract a fatal
disease, dies in a natural disaster, or dies in an automobile accident or other
no-fault cause of premature death. We call these incidents
"tragedies."
Losing one's job, living in poverty or being unable to find
timely medical assistance, are examples of "hardships."
If God is the supreme power who created us, the earth and
the skies, why are our lives sometimes interrupted by tragedy and hardship?
Human understanding of how God works appears to be largely
beyond our mortal abilities, but over the centuries much thought has attempted
to explain this mystery. The result has been the development of various theories
which take us into the realm of faith.
Which of the following theories about God do you find the
most compelling?
THEORY #1: Assume that God is the cause
of our suffering. But, our God is a God of justice and
righteousness. Our God is all powerful and causes everything that happens
in the world. Nothing happens without His will. Our God is just and
fair, and stands up for people getting what they deserve, so that the good
prosper and the wicked are punished. He gives people exactly what they
deserve.
----- Some say that by believing this, the world is kept
orderly and understandable. This belief would maintain an image of God as
all-loving and all powerful. and totally in control. This theory seems to
spare God's reputation.
----- Friends and family of victims sometimes think the
victim should be blamed so that evil doesn't seem quite so irrational and
threatening to themselves. They believe that because God punishes people
for their sins, it is one's misdeeds that have caused their misfortunes.
But, what if one does not know what the causal misdeed was. Some ask if
pointless suffering for some unspecified sin is a contribution to
humankind? Blaming the victim helps fortunate people believe that their
good fortune is deserved, rather than being a matter of chance.
----- Why is there seemingly an unfair distribution of
suffering in the world? Does God really give everyone what they deserve
and need? Why do totally unselfish people suffer, people who never do
anything wrong?
THEORY #2: Sometimes victims of
misfortune try to console themselves with the idea that God has His reasons for
making this happen to them, reasoning that they are in no position to judge
God. They believe there is some purpose in this suffering, but that it is
beyond our ability to understand. Furthermore, if God has initiated the
tragedy or hardship on us, who are we to now ask God to help us in our prayers?
----- Perhaps God has other considerations to worry about,
besides the welfare of one individual human being, when He makes decisions that
affect our lives?
THEORY #3: Could it be that things
happen to people for no reason ---- that God has lost touch with the world and
nobody is in the driver's seat? If God is not in charge of all things,
then who is? Worse yet, could it be that God does not care what happens
to us?
----- Bad things happen to good people in this world, but it
may not be God who wills it. For example, could it be that God doesn't
decide which families will give birth to a handicapped child. Perhaps God
would like people to get what they deserve in life, but he cannot always
arrange it. Are we forced to choose between a good God who is NOT totally
powerful, or a powerful God who is NOT totally good. Perhaps we should
choose to believe in God's goodness.
----- When we were children we came to realize that our
parents were not all-powerful, and that a broken toy had to be thrown out when
they could not fix it, not because they did not want to fix it. Likewise,
there are some things God would like to fix, but he does not control
them. The Bible repeatedly speaks of God as the special protector of the
poor, the widow and the orphan, without raising the question of how it happened
that they became poor, widowed, or orphaned in the first place.
THEORY #4: I do God's will out of love
for God, not out of self-interest. I can be an obedient, moral
person, but I act out of love for God, my creator, without my calculating that
moral and obedient people will be rewarded with good fortune. I can
love and be loyal to Him, even if God perhaps does not show much love to me in
return.
THEORY #5: Tragedy in our lives is for
our own good. It teaches us to be strong. Perhaps God does painful
things to us as His way of helping us ---- like a drill sergeant in the Marine
Corps. Can suffering be educational? Can it cure us of our faults
and make us better people? Just as a parent sometimes must punish a
child? To explain suffering by saying it is a "cure" for
faults, implies that tragedy is a testing. Is God really testing
us? He must know by now that many of us will fail that test. If He
is only giving us burdens we can bear, we have seen His miscalculation
far too often.
THEORY #6: In troubled times we are not
compelled to feel that God has judged and condemned us. We can be angry
at what has happened to us, without feeling that we are angry at God.
More than that, we can recognize our anger at life's unfairness, our
instinctive compassion, when seeing how other people suffer, as coming from God
who teaches us to be angry at injustice and to feel compassion for the
afflicted. We can feel that our indignation is God's anger at unfairness,
working through us.
THEORY #7: God is not doing this to
us. God is a God of justice and not of power. Thus, He can still be
on our side when bad things happen to us. He can know that we are good and
honest people who deserve better. Our misfortunes are none of His doing,
and so we can turn to Him for help. Regardless of how our tragedies are
caused, God stands ready to help us cope with the tragedies, if we can only get
beyond the feelings of guilt and anger that separate us from Him. Could
it be that, "How could God do this to me?" is the wrong question for
us to ask? We should ask, "God, see what is happening to me?
Can you help me?" We will turn to God, not to be judged or forgiven,
not to be rewarded or punished, but to be strengthened and comforted.
THEORY #8: When all else fails, some
people try to explain suffering by believing that it comes to liberate us from
a world of pain and in the case of death, leads to a better place. Death takes
us out of this world of sin and pain. The victim is now in a happier land
where there is no pain, no grief.
----- Sometimes, when our souls yearn for justice, because
we so desperately want to believe that God will be fair to us, we fasten our
hopes on the idea that life in this world is not the only reality.
Somewhere beyond this life is another world where "the last will be
first" and those whose lives were cut short here on earth will be reunited
with those they loved, and will spend eternity with them. No living
person can know anything about the reality of that hope. The non-physical
body that left us when we die, we call our "soul". Belief in a
world to come where innocent souls are compensated for their suffering can help
us endure the unfairness of life in this world, without losing faith. But
it can also be an excuse for not being troubled or outraged by injustices
around us, and not using our God-given intelligence to do something about it.
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These thoughts are brought to you by the CPC Adult
Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage your spiritual growth this
winter.
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