·
An
airplane vanished – and with it 239 souls.
·
An
explosion in NYC, and two buildings cave in.
·
Russian
troops go into Ukraine.
Yep – I can feel
my breathing go shallow, and sleeping this week has not been deep or restful. (You
Are Having a Panic Attack) “Where
was God when these bad things happen?” That’s the question that never ever goes
away. It’s like spiritual eczema –
an invisible itch for which there is no effective scratch. I don’t know if I am looking for answers
to keep myself sane, or people I love, safe. As if I even
could!
So, I went back
and looked at all the portions of the book I underlined and I got a bit of
balm, that I pass along – sanity pills and spiritual Wheaties – if you will, a don’t and a do:
·
Be
real reluctant to offer an opinion:
Christians often cause more suffering when they try to comfort the
hurting. “Christians made it worse
by offering contradictory and confusing counsel.” Those who were hurting said
they heard explanations of their afflictions varying from God punishing them,
to His especially choosing them for to demonstrate faith, to pinning the pain
on God’s enemy, Satan (The Question That Never Goes Away,
page 9.)
·
Be
useful: Contrary to nature’s rule of “survival
of the fittest,” we humans measure civilization by how we respond to the most
vulnerable and the suffering. So, we must look to the helpers. (The Question, page 33) And be
willing to be one. Yancey then reminds those who want answers to unavoidable
suffering to consider what Viktor Frankl said: “Despair is suffering without meaning, everything can be taken from a
man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in
any given set of circumstances.”
The Christian
hope is that of a radical intervention; one day “the creation itself will be
liberated” – in a sort of cosmic rebirth. Until then, no answer to suffering
will satisfy, even it we had the capacity to understand it. Faith that an infinite, but personal
God rules, Mr. Yancey concludes means believing in advance what will only make
sense in reverse. (Yancey, page 29.) He ended his consideration
of the question that never goes away by quoting Dietrich Bonheoffer, shortly
before his execution:
I believe that God can and will generate
good out of everything, even the worst evil. For, that, He needs people who
allow that everything that happens fits into a pattern for good . . . I
believe that God is not a timeless fate, but that He waits for and responds to
honest prayers and responsible action. (The Question, Page 113.)
1 comment:
Nice, Barb. Thanks for sharing.
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