Dr. Judith’s God Line

Posts Tagged ‘free will’

It’s hard to believe that 2009 has begun.

There is so much wrong in the world, it seems.  I am often asked how a good God could allow the carnage on the Gaza strip, starvation/genocide in Darfur, and more personal tragedies such as death of a child, loss of a home or job, abuse of an innocent child, or unremitting pain during a long term illness.  The thing is I don’t believe He causes these things.

It seems to me that He took a huge risk when He offered us the gift of free will.  I have no doubt that He could have created a bunch of love slaves, having us bow down in adoration and awe, blowing Him kisses and being unable to do anything wrong.l  But then, we would have been a bunch of robots.

He loves us unconditionally regardless of the good or bad choices that we make, and I think He probably values our unconditional love in return.  Which makes the question of all the pain and suffering in the world even more relevant.  How are we supposed to love Him without condition when we think He performs so badly, unreasonably, unfairly or worse, cruelly?  Again, the only answer has to be that His performance has more to do with how He supports us and sees us through the pain, how He helps us to grow and mature, being pruned and refined by the suffering.

Surely, we mortals have then ability to prevent a great deal of wrong.  Haven’t we got the resources to feed the less fortunate?  Can’t we offer health care, vaccinations, education to nations, societies, cultures that don’t have the skills, wealth, manpower or knowledge to prevent or control disease?  Don’t we have the ability and capacity for empathy to understand differing points of view so that individuals and nations and faiths  and political beliefs can live side by side in peace?  How do we manage to deny that God has made us protectors and stewards of this amazing planet and that we have the responsibility to protect it?  What makes us think that people who carry out unthinkable evil haven’t themselves experienced the same in their own lives or that their deeds don’t come from internal demons or illness of their own? Why won’t we recognize that others, even the seemingly worst of us, need and yearn for love and understanding just as much as each of us does?

To me, these are the questions that God knows we can answer.  I believe it must hurt His heart deeply to see how His world and His children have devolved into selfishness and self-centeredness to the point that we neglect, harm or just plain forget others whether they are our family, friends, co-workers, members of our church or civic community, fellow citizens of our nation or our world.

As any parent has painfully discovered, we can’t keep our kids from hurt or pain and we can’t protect them from making often serious mistakes.  If they are ever to grow up, we must let them go and experience their own journey, fraught with danger whether it is from an emotional, physical or spiritual cause.  As hard as it is to let go of our one or several children, imagine how it must be for God.  On any given day, He has to let a billion or so of His kids go forth on their own adventure.  He steps aside, giving us the dignity to fail on our own and waiting for us to turn to Him to grow and change, becoming multi-faceted beams of hope and proof of His ever present care and love.

May you find faith during your journey in 2009, and may you be willing to believe in, test out, and find comfort in His love.

Happy New Year.