Proverbs 8
One of the questions I'm often asked is "If God is a good god why does God allow bad things to happen?"
The answer I used to give never seemed to satisfy people's need for knowledge. When it came to evil being done by people I would say, "One of the gifts guaranteed to us by God is that of free will, we're allowed to make our own decisions and sometimes some of us make the wrong one." When it came to death and destruction through natural disasters I would say, "God created the world and set it "spinning", what happens after that is the result of creation."
I can see how those answers don't satisfy people's need to know why things happen. They sound evasive, almost as if I'm trying to make some sort of defense for God so that God doesn't take blame for anything bad that happens in this world. Don't get me wrong, I still don't think God is to blame for the bad things that happen in this world, I just have a better answer these days.
Now, when people ask me why, I simply say, "I honestly don't know why bad things happen but I can say that God won't be found in the bad things, rather God will be found in how we react to those bad things."
After the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut I found it difficult to place blame on anyone and found myself on a mission to stop the anger, hate, and division being spread in the name of those who own guns. After the bombings in Boston, Massachusetts I found it difficult to place blame on the two brothers that committed the crime. Instead I found myself trying to stop the anger, hate, and division being spread in the name of everything from immigration to Muslim. After the tornado which struck the town of Moore, Oklahoma I find myself crying in sadness for the loss of 7 precious children and crying in joy for the teachers who risked their own life for, or thought only of, the children's safety. I'm waiting to hear if someone will find a way to place blame on God for this one.
Today's passage reminds me that before we can understand how God works in our world we must first gain understanding. As I sit and write I recall the words spoken by an instructor in Biblical Theology at Whitworth University. She said, "If we believe that God is ultimate goodness we have to also believe that God does not possess evil." What she meant by this is that God is not responsible for the things which happen in this world, and it isn't fair if we place blame of these things on God. What we have to try and understand is that God's intent for creation now is the same as when God created the world; for all of creation to live in joy and peace with each other.
Before you start looking for blame in anything which happens in this world try to understand why they happen in the first place. Many times you will find, at least in the case of people doing evil, that the answer is because they've lost relationships somewhere. In the case of natural disasters, well...those just happen.
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