(no subject)
I have a question that I relate to anyone who is willing to listen:
I have been faced with a problem when it comes to a perspective on the will of God. Clearly, my own life has not been constantly showered with blessings, but I acknowledge them when I am aware of them. That is to say, I haven't had my faith tested to the point of breaking for a long while and so I cannot speak from experience to those who have experienced true pain and true loss within their own lives.
Case in point: My cousin, who's father is an athiest, was diagnosed with a brain tumor when he was about a year old. He was given a 2% chance of survival and he survived with no discernable brain injury or developmental problems. This in and of itself is astounding considering that I know of two other children who died from the same sort of tumor of the brain... one of those being the son of my dad's best friend who was diagnosed mere months after I found out about my cousin's diagnosis.
My mother approached my uncle (her brother) about his athiesm; and my mother, bless her heart, as devout as she is doesn't know much in the ways of theology, scripture or anything like that. What my uncle basically told her "If there [is] a God, then he wouldn't have let that happen to [my cousin]". To which my mother couldn't say anything.
Personally speaking, I think his survival and survival without any discernable side effects (surprisingly, no brain injury has been found after over five years) would be a reason to believe in, or at least start to believe in God, especially considering that it not only couldn't have turned out any better, but could have far more easily been a hundred thousand times worse. His [my uncle's] perspective is that the situation itself was reason enough to not believe in God, and not so much the storybook-perfect resolution. I can't know for sure what it was like for my uncle to wonder whether or not his son would survive, but he was my cousin just as much as he was his son. That dark chapter in my family's history (which also included the sudden death of my grandfather) was one that affected all of us but everone seems to look at it differently. How do you speak to someone about God who has experienced suffering and loss when that someone can just as easily explain God away citing their own experience?
I have been faced with a problem when it comes to a perspective on the will of God. Clearly, my own life has not been constantly showered with blessings, but I acknowledge them when I am aware of them. That is to say, I haven't had my faith tested to the point of breaking for a long while and so I cannot speak from experience to those who have experienced true pain and true loss within their own lives.
Case in point: My cousin, who's father is an athiest, was diagnosed with a brain tumor when he was about a year old. He was given a 2% chance of survival and he survived with no discernable brain injury or developmental problems. This in and of itself is astounding considering that I know of two other children who died from the same sort of tumor of the brain... one of those being the son of my dad's best friend who was diagnosed mere months after I found out about my cousin's diagnosis.
My mother approached my uncle (her brother) about his athiesm; and my mother, bless her heart, as devout as she is doesn't know much in the ways of theology, scripture or anything like that. What my uncle basically told her "If there [is] a God, then he wouldn't have let that happen to [my cousin]". To which my mother couldn't say anything.
Personally speaking, I think his survival and survival without any discernable side effects (surprisingly, no brain injury has been found after over five years) would be a reason to believe in, or at least start to believe in God, especially considering that it not only couldn't have turned out any better, but could have far more easily been a hundred thousand times worse. His [my uncle's] perspective is that the situation itself was reason enough to not believe in God, and not so much the storybook-perfect resolution. I can't know for sure what it was like for my uncle to wonder whether or not his son would survive, but he was my cousin just as much as he was his son. That dark chapter in my family's history (which also included the sudden death of my grandfather) was one that affected all of us but everone seems to look at it differently. How do you speak to someone about God who has experienced suffering and loss when that someone can just as easily explain God away citing their own experience?