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Posts Tagged ‘accepting catastrophes’

If Winter Comes, Can Spring Be Far Behind?

Posted in acceptance, changes, faith, trust, tagged , , on February 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »

There are times when it seems difficult to understand why God allows excesses in some places and scarcities in others. We have droughts and we have floods. We have heat waves and “bone chilling cold.” Balance and moderation don’t seem to occur with any regularity.

In the last few years, I think I have finally reached a place where I have stopped asking God why things happen the way they do. Life is what it is! I could never really accept that God’s will causes unhappiness, struggle or pain. Today I believe (honestly) that God’s will for us is that we have freedom, joy, and happiness.

Anderson Gardens 09 017

However, God has given us freedom of choice and He/She does not intervene in the natural order of things. We are free to be happy or sad, and even though we frequently don’t want to fully accept this fact
, we are free to choose. We often choose to be miserable. I suspect it is part of the human condition that we sometimes enjoy our own misery.

I will never understand God, and today I don’t believe I was meant to do so in this human life. I’d like to think I will understand better at a later time. When I look for help, though, I find it in many places along the journey. One I would recommend to everyone is a small book I read years ago for the first time and still read today. It is called “The Will of God” and it was written by Leslie D. Weatherhead.

In the book, the will of God is discussed in three separate parts. First there is the intentional will of God. Then comes the circumstantial will of God (God’s plan within certain circumstances) and lastly, God’s ultimate will. Looking at it this way has helped me enormously to put life, death, catastrophes, pain, and suffering into perspective.

We have all seen great good come out of terrible suffering. Today I choose to believe that God never causes suffering, but does not intervene unless called upon to do so, and then the inventions come in ways we may not expect. We can’t see what lies ahead of us in our journey through life, but God can. All we must do is believe He/She desires the best for us all.

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CATASTROPHES AND GOD’S WILL

Posted in acceptance, faith, Love, tagged , , on July 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I would like to dedicate this piece to all of those in pain because of the recent massacre in Colorado.  

 

When horrific things happen in this world (and they always do, it seems) many folks seem to have some questions about how God can allow such things to happen.   I believe that God cries with us when such things occur.  While I firmly believe that God is always available to us and that He or She does direct our paths when we wish to follow His will, I believe also that God gave man free will and does not intervene to stop nature from taking it’s course.

 

There is simply no way that I could accept that the God in whom I believe would will to have tragedies happen.   Slaughters, mass murders, natural catastrophes and the like are caused either by Nature or by man himself in some sense.  I cannot believe that these things happen because God intends for them to happen.   However, I also believe that out of all tragedies come good things eventually.  I am only able to see an infinitesimal portion of the mosaic of my life, so I am required to have faith and trust that God will take care of all of us.  Our Creator knows what She is doing.

 

I hate it when others are in pain, but I know I am not powerful enough to take away that pain.  God is powerful enough and will do so, eventually, if He is summoned.   As many in the media have already said, I pray that those involved will find comfort and, eventually, peace of some sort.  God might not prevent disasters from happening, but He is surely available to comfort those who need comfort.   When bad things happen to good people, I used to feel quite cynical and insist that this was just the way of the world.    God has helped me to see that cynicism does nobody good, while prayers and hopeful thoughts can work wonders.

 
My brother recently suffered a tragic loss when his beautiful home in the Roosevelt National Forest was consumed by Colorado’s fires.   Thankfully, he and his wife (and their dogs) got out safely, but everything was lost.   Why did it happen?  Why was his home in the path of the fire?   We can always torture ourselves by wondering why terrible things happen.   Or we can slowly but surely try to accept that these things are part of our lives.  We don’t and can’t know why these things happen.  But we can help one another to get through them.

 

 

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