That is the age old question. For centuries people have been asking that very question, and I believe no real satisfactory answer has been found. I'm not going to try and convince you or myself that I have the answer, but I have thought about this. I believe in God, and His Son Jesus. I try to live my life by Jesus' teachings, but even I find this a very tough subject.
A little over a week ago, Paradox, my church, asked this question. We have started a four week series on the question, "Why?" Though it would be a lot easier to just stream a podcast of it here, I actually have some thoughts on this as well. To steal a tidbit of my friends message, I believe the real question here, or at least the first question we need to ask is, "Who, or what is good?"
My God says He is Good. So, if He is good, what am I? I hesitate to use the word "evil" so I will say, non-good. If I were to say I am good, that would imply, on some level, that I am equal to my God. If I am equal to my God, even in a small way, what is the point in worshiping Him at all? He wouldn't be a God at all. My Creator has to be better than me in every way, or there is no point.
Now the human part of me does not think that is good enough. Too simple of an answer, so I looked for something else. That something else came into my life almost seven years ago. Her name is Kirsten. Ever since the day she could do things for herself she did bad things. Taking cookies after I told her she couldn't, going into my room when she knows she is not allowed. I never had to teach her to do bad. It came natural. I did however, have to teach her to do good. So, if we are good, and are born good, shouldn't we automatically do good from day one. Our environment and our nurturing would be the cause of our own bad behavior, right? Not so, watch any child grow, and you will see, that is not true.
I know that this does not answer the question, but it brought a lot of clarity for me. Why does God allow for bad things to happen? I don't know. As I said before, I'm not going to begin to even try to understand the mind of an infinite being. My little finite mind would literally go insane with the attempt. What I do know is that, it is very easy to blame the bad things on God. We do it all the time, but when the good things happen...God is forgotten.
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2 comments:
Just Vickie’s opinion.
I agree Matt! Being thankful to God is one of the most important things you can do! It makes you view what / who you have/are and appreciate them more. I know it kinda sounds like glass half full b.s. but it seems to change my outlook on life in general when I approach things with a thankful heart. To me, God gave us 2 hands, and a brain to use them. We do good or bad things…not God. God created us…gave us free will…we do with it what we choose. That’s why bad things happen. But God is there to help us pick up the pieces when bad things do happen.
God moves in mysterious ways. Some say that is a cop-out, I think it is the only thing we humans can say about God when we do not understand. Whether God allows bad things to happen because of our freewill or because it all fits into some big plan, whose to say. But I would like to believe he is still in control and this will all make sense someday. I do agree, God's love extends to all people, good and bad, and to stop someone from doing something stupid, would mean we no longer have free will.
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