A Sunday Post
Lately some friends on a mailing list have been talking about this tragic story about a young man who was beaten into a persistive vegetative state. His dad has essentially given up his life to care for his son, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He seems consumed by sorrow and rage, and I can't say that I don't understand. I don't know how I'd get through a situation like that, day after day, month after month.
I am bemused, though, by the dad having "lost his faith in God." "What kind of God lets this happen?" he asks. The answer to that is that it's the same God who let a million, two million, a billion individual tragedies happen while you still had your faith. Do faithful people really believe that they're somehow immune from the horrors of life? I guess some do, but I've never understood that, even as a person of faith myself. All my life I've heard the terrible stories, the tornados, the earthquakes, the sociopaths... Why do some people feel that they can maintain their faith as long as they're not on the firing line, but when it's them they suddenly start asking "Why??"
I look at the folks who are spoken of in this news story, bringing food and raising money and building ramps. Horrible, senseless things happen every day, all over. That doesn't mean God isn't there, or that he's ignoring us. It means that this is a world where these things happen and we get through the horrors because we don't have to walk alone. When you ask "Where is God?", look at the person dropping off a casserole, or cleaning your house or organizing a fund raiser for you. That's where he is.
I am bemused, though, by the dad having "lost his faith in God." "What kind of God lets this happen?" he asks. The answer to that is that it's the same God who let a million, two million, a billion individual tragedies happen while you still had your faith. Do faithful people really believe that they're somehow immune from the horrors of life? I guess some do, but I've never understood that, even as a person of faith myself. All my life I've heard the terrible stories, the tornados, the earthquakes, the sociopaths... Why do some people feel that they can maintain their faith as long as they're not on the firing line, but when it's them they suddenly start asking "Why??"
I look at the folks who are spoken of in this news story, bringing food and raising money and building ramps. Horrible, senseless things happen every day, all over. That doesn't mean God isn't there, or that he's ignoring us. It means that this is a world where these things happen and we get through the horrors because we don't have to walk alone. When you ask "Where is God?", look at the person dropping off a casserole, or cleaning your house or organizing a fund raiser for you. That's where he is.