Some thoughts on God and life's trouble
Submitted by Jules on December 11 2001 17:19:33
In reply to the grace of whos god? submitted by scruffy lad on December 9 2001 18:52:08
|
Hi scruffy, What good news that there has been one Christian who showed you true love! Something like that will always mean more than all the efforts of the church as an institution. Don't judge Jesus by the worst of his followers but by the best! The bad comes from us; the good from him. I really don't think God has deliberately planned any of the trouble that we go through. How can anyone believe in a God of love who could have planned any of the evil in this world? Even to say that God allows evil case by case for some greater purpose (the tapestry idea) stretches the imagination. If God planned everything from the start why didn't he make the tapestry look good on both sides?! The only conclusion I can come to is that in creating the world in the first place, God limited his own ability to intervene in it. He did it so that we have free choice, otherwise there would have been no point in creating us at all. The world only makes any sense if God isn't totally "in control" the way the church normally preaches. Instead, he has delegated the job to us. It's there right from the start - God told Adam and Eve to rule over the earth, and he didn't take that back when they messed up. It's still our world, and the trouble in it is our trouble. It hurts God to see it, but he doesn't over-rule us. God wants to put things right, but he just can't do it by intervening directly, because he's already delegated everything to us and limited his own power. Which is the best parent: the one who jumps in to save the child from every harm, or the one who lets the child discover right and wrong for herself? The only solution to the evil in the world is if we put it right ourselves, and that's where Jesus comes in. Jesus was the first one of us to live the right way and be what Adam and Eve were supposed to be. He did good, and he also submitted without protest to the worst evil we have ever come up with. If we trust his way to be the right way and do the same, then we are part of the solution instead of the problem. And of course God's Holy Spirit was in Jesus and is in us, proving in the end that God is really at work to solve things, but through us rather than on his own. Gosh I didn't mean to write all that, but it all came out. Scruffy, brother, if you're looking to find the presence of God again, start with Jesus. Don't just look at him as God, but also see how he knew God the Father himself while he was human. And then copy that relationship yourself. And start with the good Christians you know, and their relationship with God as well. Join in with them, and copy them. Maybe this will be one place where you can do that. With Christian love, Jules |
Follow ups: