Out of Turn [Hallam: Why The Bible No Longer Comforts Me]
I read the news today, oh boy. I know its a little bit corny to keep quoting pop music in this very serious discussion, but music sometimes comforts me in a way the Bible does not.
This weekend, many areas of Nebraska were devastated by a series of tornadoes and severe weather. The rural town of Hallam, about 20 miles outside of Lincoln, was hit particularly hard. Homes and buildings were leveled and vehicles were tossed about like empty soda pop cans. At least one person was killed. Governor Johanns has declared a state of emergency.
Hallam is a very small town, less than a square mile, with maybe 300 people living in it. They are good, hard working, friendly and churchgoing people. The town is known for its peacefulness, clean air and light traffic. Its people have done nothing to deserve this.
For 3,000 years, people have asked why God allows bad things to happen to good people. The best explanations offered are "The Lord works in mysterious ways" and "God will not interfere with man's free will." Neither of these explanations do anything for my faith.
I'm jumping ahead, and I'll discuss it, I suppose, when I get to those parts of Genesis in which God offers us explanations for why disasters struck cities like Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible's best explanation, for 3,000 years, has been "because those people were wicked."
But I know better. The people of Hallam are not wicked. Yet, today, God abandoned them. God's nature unleashed its fury on the good people of Hallam, while wicked places the world over, which are clearly as horrible as Babel, Sodom or Gomorrah, are enjoying a peaceful day. How is that good?
If God looked down at His creation this weekend, He would not be able to see that it was good. He would see this, and know that some of it was not good at all.
4 Comments:
Hi Thomas... it is hard to understand and to explain why God allows this to happen. He has control over all forces, natural and supernatural, so why do bad things happen to good people? When thoughts as these come to my mind, I think of various verses, like James 1:2-5 and what trials can produce in our lives if we allow the hardships to turn into learning experiences, and into us being able to grow closer to God through them. I also think of the verse in John 9:1-3, where when we wonder who sinned to cause such things, Christ's answer would be that no one did, but that things like this happen so that we can witness and feel the fullness of how God works in the midst of the caos. Also 2 Cor. 12:10, when we are weak, or weakened by an factors not under our control, we deepen our worship and faith by admitting our need, and God's all expansive strength to help the surrendered spirit.
Ask Him why in prayer, ask Him to reveal His heart to you, to share His wisdom with you... ask Him to show you something specifically... and He will be faithful to answer. Don't lose heart Thomas, continue on your discovery of what's in His Word for you... read His promises cover to cover, and continue to contemplate and pray for clarity and wisdom along the way. I'm following your journey and pray for your heart to stay tender.
hugs & smiles,
monica
(found your blog via Marla http://proverbialwife.com ; )
and fyi, my blog is at http://lookingtothelight.typepad.com/blog
oops, sorry those links didn't work, doh.
Why do we blame God when people die? Isaiah told us what God said about the life of man: "The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever."
God is just keeping His word. The good news is that His word also says we can have peace with Him in every circumstance and we have a joyous certainty of eternal life if we are in Christ.
And it's because of this hope, that people who are truly in Christ can selflessly pour out compassion and grace to those who need it so desparately in any place in the world where reality has set in.
The explaination I gave to myself as to why these things happen to people, good people, is that:
1) we are paying for the sin of our fathers(Adam, all the way down to our biological father). When you think like this, it isn't encouraging because you realize, I can't pay off even 1 and I have to deal with all these sins that arn't mine.
Despite this it make me glad because I know that God forgave me. We will still pay for our fathers mistakes but we are forgiven and will one day live in paradise.
2)Sort of ties in, but we don't know how far the ripples of our actions travel out. in this case it's Adam bring sin into the world. In a day to day basis, the reality is because we don't know everything, we will make mistakes. And maybe those mistakes will not do anything, and sometimes they snowball out of control.
I hope I helped(and made sense). If yo have any questions, or just want to discuss, feel free to email me at:
J.JohnstonS.S@Gmail.com
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