Just a Thought
My life tends to follow a certain pattern. I will have one or two major life questions that are at the forefront of my mind. I will spend anywhere from three months to a year diving into whatever question is before me and then I will have a down period where I won’t really think of anything of more depth than the Broncos or comparing and contrasting all of the Die Hard movies.
The issue that I have been wrestling with lately is where is God in the midst of suffering? I have been thinking about this ever since I read a novel called The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. All throughout my life I have heard people talk about God’s will in regards to pain and brokenness. I would hear one person say to someone who has lost a loved one, “It’s OK they are in a better place now. Sometimes it is hard to know the why but it was his will.” It’s true that the person who has died might be in a better place and it is hard to know the will of God but to say that God caused so-in-so to die because it was part of his will is not entirely accurate. I have an extremely hard time thinking that the God of love, grace, mercy, redemption, and life causes death and heartache. I think we cause all of the crap that is in the world and God works with it. I think to say that God causes death is to rob him of his redemptive power. I serve the God who defeated death, not brought it about. I believe God can take the s**t in our lives and redeem it. He takes what was never intended and brings it into himself, where it finds love. When someone talks about the silver lining I hear God’s hand at work. When someone verbalizes some joy that has come out of great suffering I hear a God that refuses to abandon us.
No, I serve a God of redemption and a God that will always bring us close even through the worst circumstances not a puppeteer that forces death and brokenness onto his creation for his own amusement or to accomplish a greater good. The greatest good was defeating death and mending brokenness. My uncle committed suicide yesterday. I am not sure where the redemption is going to come from but it will come. I am waiting with my God for the silver lining.
Ashlee said,
Wrote on August 28, 2008 @ 11:57 am
I’m waiting right beside you, Babe.
Aaron said,
Wrote on August 29, 2008 @ 2:47 pm
I agree with what you are saying, especially in saying that God does not cause pain to happen; rather, I believe he allows it to happen, which is truly a gift. To shield us from all pain would be robbing us of a fundamental aspects of being human–we live in a broken world. The brokenness we see and feel further illustrates not only the separation we have from God, and how much we really depend on Him, but the tenderness of His love, sweetness of mercy, and the abundance of grace.
Fortunately/unfortunately, God has blessed us with free will, which, as well well know, can be bent and twisted into something that does not resemble its creator; however, our free will can also be nutured, guided, and allowed to blossom into what it was intended to be.
God is the creator, healer, soother, and mender of our broken selves and this broken world, NOT the destroyer. Like any loving parent, not only does he laugh when we laugh, and exult in our joy, when we do suffer, he holds us close with tears that mirror our own.
ben said,
Wrote on August 30, 2008 @ 9:36 pm
thank you
Gregg Koskela said,
Wrote on September 3, 2008 @ 10:23 am
Whoa. I’m behind on my blog reading. I join you in calling out to God to make good his promise to redeem, agonize with you in the “in-between” of waiting. May God be the God he promises to be, to you and to your family.