Lately I have been wondering if I did something to make God mad. It seems like there are breaks to be caught but they just don’t seem to float my way. “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” It’s one of those phrases I never understood and yet it described my own life too perfectly sometimes.
It’s funny even as I wallow in my own self pity and doubt I know it’s ridiculous, but so much easier to look for someone to blame. Even as I do it to myself I tell my own children that it’s wrong. Ricky thinks everything is a punishment from God. He had the flu this week and he kept asking what he did that made God so mad. I told him, “Ricky, God doesn’t work like that.” So now he thinks its Satan that causes the flu.
But isn’t that what we all do? He could think, “I should have washed my hands more” or “I should have had more vitamin C.” Of course he won’t because he’s 8, but do we really get any better at that when we’re 28? Maybe the hand washing part, but the blaming? Isn’t it easier to think someone else did it, or if there’s no one else, some all powerful being has cursed us and there’s nothing we can do about it? It’s certainly simpler that way.
I hear arguments against the existence of God all the time. A few of the most reoccurring are “Why would God give us free will? Why wouldn’t he just make it so we had to listen to him?” And “Why does God let bad things happen?” Or “Why wouldn’t God just talk to us, the way he did in the old testament? Just come down and tell us what he wants us to do.”
Well first of all, wouldn’t life be terrible if we didn’t have free will? Maybe we wouldn’t know it, but who wants to be a mindless robot? God gave us free will because he loves us, despite the fact that he knew we would fail him again and again. Its like any parent. We know our kids are going to misbehave, talk back, jump on our furniture, and eventually become teenagers who break our hearts over and over, yet we still have children, we still love them, and we wouldn’t take away their free will or personalities for anything. When I was told I could put Ricky on a magic pill that would make him sit still I wasn’t even tempted. If Ricky wasn’t bouncing off walls my head would hurt a lot less, but he wouldn’t be Ricky. I think that’s how God sees it too.
Why does God let bad things happen? Well I have two reasons for that. The first, the churchy answer, is original sin. We were set up in The Garden of Eden, where we got to be naked and eat whatever we wanted and do whatever we wanted and the one and only rule we had was not to eat out of one tree. So what did we do? We ate out of the tree. Now we’re caste out of Eden and bad things happen.
Want to know what I really think? I think bad things happen because bad things happen. There needs to be a balance, good with the bad, light with the dark, day with the night. Things balance out, it can’t all be lollypops and roses.
And then of course the flip side to Disney Princesses, Super Heroes. I was watching the original Super Man with the boys the other night and I was suddenly struck by how ridiculous it is. How did Lois Lane survive before she new Clark Kent. On the very first day they met he catches a bullet heading for her back, the next day he catches her falling off a building, very fortunate timing for her to become a death defying klutz. I suppose I could be looking to far into silly things like kids shows but look at the message we are sending our children about the helpless women and the big strong men that save them.
Isn’t this the same way we look at God though? Isn’t this what we expect of him? The same people that adamantly claim they do not need God will throw him under the bus for not saving us when we leap from a ten story building.
Along with the free will he gifted us with comes the consequences of said free will. If you walk around in a bad neighborhood you may get mugged, or worse. If you leave your house you may get hit by a bus. These are the chances we take every day so we may live the life we choose.
Even Jesus when he was tempted in the dessert to show that he was truly the son of God refused. The Devil told him to leap from the rock and prove that he really was protected by God and “ Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Luke 4:12
Yet, through all that we do have one promises to take comfort in, God is always there “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:8
Oh and why doesn’t he talk to us anymore? Because were “stiff necked” “And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff necked people:
Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.-- Exodus 32: 9-10 You wouldn’t keep talking to someone who wasn’t listening to you, would you?
Here’s someone who had a right to be angry with God but instead he says this, “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Job 23:10 We should all be ready for any test or trial that may come our way and bear it with a smile because better days are ahead.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “ Matthew 19:21
No comments:
Post a Comment