Many years ago, I took my family on a winter vacation to the
Saranac Lake area in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. It was
during the school break between Christmas and New Year's.
In the mid-1930's, the nearby Village of Lake Placid had
been the site of a Winter Olympics, so today there remain Olympic ice rinks.
toboggan runs and other Olympic facilities open to the public.
We were joined by six Summit families, and we shared a large
rented house with a grand fireplace and a good supply of firewood. So, in
the early evenings, when the wives and kids headed off to bed, the dads would
relax by the fire and chat over a glass of wine or beer.
One dad was newly returned from an overseas business
trip. By chance he had been to a country which had just suffered an
earthquake. He was quite consumed by the devastation he has seen.
Buildings had collapsed, falling on occupants and passersby, and some 23 people
had been killed. Of course, there had also been the loss of electric
power and clean water, and the streets were filled with rubble.
"Why did this tragedy happen," he asked us,
"Where was God?"
---- Theory #1:
After a moment or two, one of the dads suggested that God has his reasons
for making this happen, and that we are in no position to judge God. The
dad said there was some purpose in this suffering, but that it was beyond our
ability to understand. Furthermore, if God initiated this tragedy, who
were we to now ask God for help in our prayers? So, if God is
so powerful, He doesn't have to be fair!
---- Theory #2:
A second dad had a different thought: Tragedy in our lives is for
our own good, he said. It teaches us to be strong. Perhaps God does
painful things to us as His way of helping us, shaping us up ---- like a drill
sergeant in the Marine Corps. Can't suffering be educational? Can't
it cure some of our faults and make us better people? Just as a parent
sometimes must punish a child?"
---- Theory #3:
But dad #3 had a negative reaction to this. "To explain suffering by
saying it is attempting to "cure" our faults, suggests that tragedy
is a remedy. If God is really just testing us, he must know by now that
many of us will fail the test. If He is only giving us burdens we can
bear, we have seen His miscalculations far too often.
"Also, why does
there seem to be an unfair distribution of suffering in the world? Does
God really give everyone just what they deserve and need? Why do
totally unselfish people suffer, people who never did anything wrong?"
"And, what about when
a friend tells a sufferer that the suffering has a purpose? It
really does not help the sufferer or explain the suffering. It is meant
primarily to defend God, to use words and ideas to transform bad into good,
pain into privilege. Such answers are thought up by people who believe
that God is a loving parent who controls all that happens to us, and on
the basis of that belief they adjust and interpret the facts to fit their
assumptions."
---- Theory #4:
Dad #4 had a very different opinion. "God is not doing this to
us. Our 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," he continued, "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 should therefore turn
to God, not to be judged or forgiven, not to be rewarded or punished, but to be
strengthened and comforted."
---- Theory #5:
Dad #5 had yet a different approach: "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. Our God is also just and fair. He stands up for
people so they get what they deserve. The good prosper and the wicked are
punished. He gives people exactly what they deserve. In a time of
tragedy people should think it is the victim who should be blamed,
not God ---- then, the tragedy doesn't seem quite so irrational and
threatening. Because God punishes people for their sins, it is our
misdeeds, they can say, that cause our misfortunes."
"However, people may
feel guilty as they assume they were somehow responsible for their
misfortune. They may wonder which of their actions caused the
suffering, as they review what may have been said, done or not done.
Others will ask if pointless suffering for some unspecified sin is a
contribution to the improvement of mankind? But, blaming the victim does
help fortunate people believe their good fortune is deserved, rather
than being a matter of chance.
---- Theory #6:
"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?
"Although bad things
do sometimes happen to good people, it may be that they are not willed by
God. 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
beloved broken toy had to be thrown out if our parents could not fix it, but
not because they did not want to fix it. Likewise, there may be some
things God would like to fix, but He does not control them. The Bible
speaks repeatedly 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."
It was getting late, but next it was my turn. "It
is hard to follow so much sincere wisdom, spoken by you guys," I
said. "But I confess that my simple human brain cannot reconcile
these many conflicting perspectives on the nature of God. I always seem
to return to what a beloved Bible scholar has said many times ---- "It is
a mystery!"
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult
Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal
spiritual growth this winter at CPC.
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