OUR BACKS TO THE WALL (Or Why Does Tragedy Strike or Problems Come to Call?)

(These thoughts are added to three times each week)

When tragedy strikes, there are two responses that are quite common in their repetition. “I deserved it. Let me tell you what I did” or the opposite, “Why did this happen to me? I don’t deserve this!”

And why does tragedy or unexpected problem or pain come to call? Did God one day kneel down and draw a line in the sand of life and then dare you to step across that line? And if you did, did He then say, “The back of my heavenly hand to you. You had your chance, you didn’t take it. Go now, you deserve the punishment you are receiving.”

I doubt it. God’s bigger than that.

There is no doubt that much pain and suffering, though certainly not all, really comes from our abuse of freedom; moral anarchy, really bad choices, a philosophy of life that says, If it feels good, it’s okay, even when it’s not okay. You see, though we human beings really are just a little lower than the angels, if we choose to sin, and then do not even feel badly about the sinning, we court chaos.

Basic truth: you pays your money - you takes your choice.

“Turn left,” says God, and we turn right for the simple reason we don’t want to turn left. “Give me guidance,” we pray, when sometimes we don’t really want guidance, what we want is clearance.

I remember when I was a little boy I would ask my parents for permission to do something. And they, seeing a bigger picture than I, would sometimes say no. At that moment I wasn’t interested in a bigger picture, only in what I wanted. And so, sometimes I would ignore their advice and follow my own foolishness, and then get in trouble. We do that don’t we; with our parents, with common sense, with God.

Ask the average person whether they would prefer to live in a jail or a mansion and they would certainly reply. “I believe I would be happier in a mansion, thank you.” And then, some of them go out and break the law and end up living in a jail. Or court pain and problems, and end up in another kind of jail. Indeed, if you could have asked my next door neighbor when he was young, which would he prefer to have, two healthy lungs or the emphysema that daily choked off his breathing? I am positive he would have readily replied, “I would prefer not to have emphysema.” But for years he smoked heavily and a few years ago he prematurely died.
But what about suffering that one does not pursue, you ask. Nature on a rampage. Floods and famine and earthquakes and hurricanes. Though I realize that insurance companies call these catastrophes acts of God, I would prefer to call the kindness of the people who at such times come out the woodwork to help people they don’t even know, acts of God. The worst of times often does bring out the best in people.

What about wars? Is God responsible for them? No. The ambitions of one man or a few men, or their anger, or their greed does not have God’s blessing. And, of course, once a war is started all the meanness in man is multiplied. And yes, in some wars, there are those who are trying to right some wrongs, rightly or wrongly in their conclusions…it is their aim.

And I know that when on television we see thousands starving to death, God did not create the famine. The needless deaths of so many, are often caused by greedy men who instead of giving out the food sent to their countries, sell it at a profit. And those who have taken freedom; the Hitler’s, the Ayatollahs, the Castro’s. When men do not practice brotherhood they worship at an altar of brutality that leads to earthly hell.

And yes, there are ignorant men around the world who will not let modern agricultural methods be practiced, or allow enough wells to be dug. Or people, who in stupidity or laziness, chop down all the trees until mud slides reap destruction or allow deserts take over where before fertile lands existed. And technology is there to stop the crisis but politics plays the heavier hand and technological help dies an early death.

But what about depression or the death of a wife or husband in a car accident? The list is long and the questions are not new ones. Go back several thousand years, and Job in the Bible asked them.

A quick overview of that Biblical story: Why did tempest destroy both his house and his children? Why did fire burn up his servants and sheep? Why miserable and painful sores from the top of his head to the bottom of his toes? Why all this to a man whom the Bible calls, “…blameless and upright, one who feared God, and turned away from evil”?

And move from the Old Testament to the New – the questions do not go away. A man is born blind, though neither he nor his parents were first class sinners.

Who and why? It is the ultimate question to which we seek an ultimate answer. Nature gone awry. Accidents without rhyme or reason.

Jesus says, “If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?”

And you in all honesty reply, “Tell me about it. Explain to me why I have asked for bread and have sometimes been given a stone. Explain to me why I have asked for health and been given sickness. Yeah…tell me about it.” And God does.

Through Jesus who begins to give an answer with definitions and deeds: on top of a mountain where He is tempted by the devil, when he cast out demons, when He calls him the source of all evil, “..a liar and a father of lies.” And if you let theological common sense speak to you, you begin to get a message that God allows pain and problems, but does not inflict them.

God is not a demon, nor a devil, nor schizophrenic.

If you have a problem with this answer, look at the cross. It shouts mortality…and immortality; pain…and salvation; death…and resurrection. It shouts that the power of the devil is transient power. Momentary victories, but not ultimately, triumphant.

Does God use evil to bring about good? Suffering to bring about salvation? The answer is yes. Does this mean He sends evil and suffering? The answer is no. Does than mean bad come from an evil devil and good from a good and caring God? I’m comfortable with that.

Why doesn’t God just rewrite the script of life? Edit out all pain and problems? Create paradise as a present reality rather than something to which we go? I don’t know completely why. But by study, prayer and insight, I know enough to be able to live with what I don’t know and understand.

I know that God has given us a precise and orderly world. That heavy objects don’t float and super light objects do. I know that the bodies we all inhabit are miracles that defy description. That because our digestive systems and circulation systems are at the moment working reasonably well, we are alive. That I can see you and you can see me because the pupils of our eyes are contracting and expanding. And the miracles go on and on.

God has given our bodies remarkable recuperative power: broken bones heal, most heart attacks are not fatal, and our bodies adapt and continue to function at pretty good levels.

However, He did not create us to last on this earth forever.

In Jonathon Swift’s book, Gulliver’s Travels, he tells of a land where once or twice in a generation a child is born with a circular red spot on its forehead which signifies that it will never die. Gulliver imagines these children to be the most fortunate of all people, “born exempt from the universal calamity of human nature – death.” But as he comes to know them, he realizes that they are in fact the most miserable. They grow old and feeble. Their friends and contemporaries die off. At the age of one hundred, their property is taken away and given to their children who would otherwise never inherit from them. Their bodies contract various ailments. They accumulate grudges and grievances, they grow weary of the struggles of living, and they can never look forward to being released from the pain of everlasting earthly life.
Imagine how terribly over-crowded this world would become if people lived forever. And the public outcry every time a birth took place. What a loss, if there were, in fact, no new population. No fresh starts. No new beginnings.

There are many things I do not know or comprehend , but one I can grasp is that while death at first may seem frightening and tragic, to know I would never die would be unbearable. Hey, I’m promised heaven and that’s one serious first class upgrade.

I also know that if a bullet is fired at us and the aim is good, one of us will be seriously wounded or die. And that if we go where disease is rampant, we may well walk away with that disease. If we jump out of a five story building, though someone may shout at us as we go by the third floor, so far so good, we will indeed in a very short time go splat. In God’s orderly world the law of gravity has not been repealed.

There are two types of pain – creative pain and pointless pain. Having a baby is creative pain. However, the pain endured when passing a kidney stone seems to me to be pointless, unless by driving a man to his knees he stays there long enough to pray. All kinds of pain make some people bitter, and others empathetic and compassionate. Pain, any kind of pain, is the price we pay for being alive.

And we have only two choices when there are too many problems and too much pain. One is to rebel, to complain why me? And the other is to attempt to relate, how can I make these times of pain and problem meaningful?

Poets, philosophers, theologians and the Apostle Paul have mightily sought to give satisfactory answers to these mighty questions. Paul said that the thorn in his side, which is never really identified, perfected his weaknesses.
Or, as an unknown poet wrote from his collection of pain;
I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’er a word said she;
But, oh, the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me!