How can a God, who calls himself Love, sit back idly and allow a mass murder to occur in D.C., Sandy Hook, or Aurora? How does God allow people, whom he says he loves, to die by toxic gas? Where was God on 9/11? Where was God in WWII, when 60 million lives were wasted? Is God too busy to intervene when an innocent child is molested by a relative? Is it God's love that allows for a child to starve while her mother uses all of their families income for another fifth of liquor, and another rock of cheap cocaine?
80% of Jews no longer believe in God as a result of the tragedies in their history. They have come to a conclusion that either God does not exist, or that God does not care, and thus he has broken his covenant with them. As Christians we point to the Cross, and say to them, "there is the fulfillment of your covenant." And so we do not struggle with this problem. Superstition says we can make God dance, we know this isn't true, and thus do not feel that God owes us anything. However, there still remains an obvious tension if we look at the world around us. If God tells us that he loves us, and he tells us he is all powerful, it would be easy to look around and conclude that one of those statements is a lie. Either God does not have the power to stop evil, or God does not love us. If we truly believe this antagonism leads to that conclusion, then we have an improper definition of Love.
Step back from this conversation. Take two or three steps back and first ask yourself if you believe in Eternity. Questions like these stem from a focus on our vapor short life on this broken earth. First find your answer for what God's ultimate concern is, and start from the beginning. God created a perfect world for us, and because of the chronic problem of the human heart we destroyed that utopia and bliss. We brought it on ourselves to suffer, and only by suffering can we fix our heart. The focus of the gospel is that we must leave behind our desires, not embrace them. Christ tells the rich man that the persuit of his desires is what will ultimately condemn him, and if we lived in a world where all of our desires were met then our selfishness would destroy our hearts and turn us away from God. This is the providence of God. So much of Christ' message is focused on charity, and charity is what will cure us of our condition, and allow us to embrace his sacrifice and admit that we need a savior. So if charitable hearts is what we need, then how would that be accomplished in a perfect world? Providence allows us to live in a world that will point us toward him. A cruel god would allow us to live in heaven while on earth, and allow us to think that we do not need anything more. Be silent and know that God has all in focus; recognize that he sees our hearts, and that he desires to repair them. Through God's love we live in an environment that leaves more to be desired, so that we may draw close to him. Providence is God guiding us to what we need, not handing us what we want. Stepping back far enough, to where we can see the edges of the frame, shows us that our short life on Earth is not the focus of the painting.
200 plus years ago in Haiti, under the suppression of the French, the leaders in Haiti did a voodoo type ritual in hopes of liberation. Whether Pat Robertson's claim that they made a pact with the devil is true or not is irrelevant, but it still remains a part of their history. When my brother-in-law got back from Haiti a few years ago, he told me that at the beginning of 2010, the pastors in Haiti got together to pray that God would take Haiti back. One pastor literally prayed "God shake Haiti." Only days later there was a massive earthquake. A young man was running through the streets after the earthquake to look for his family, when he noticed that a historically voodoo people, were calling a different name. What he heard was people calling for Jesus. Suffering. Faith. Providence.
We will never have the answer to every question, but eventually we must come to the conclusion that God knows the cure, and that trusting him will set us free from the fate we deserve. There are many questions that I wish I knew the answer to, which eventually lead to one question, "Why did God put the Tree in the Garden?" But I must trust that it is not looking to the Past, but to the Future that should be my focus. So the better question to ask is, "Where will I spend Eternity?"
Eternity is a place where the murderer and the victim are eternally separated, and our current life is where we decide which camp we want to be in. I know that personally, were I to have all of my desires, I would assume that I was a god. If every desire of my heart was mine then I must be in control, and therefore must be god. Those who are not suffering, do not call for a savior. Therefore to me, suffering is God's providence. Jesus did not heal Lazarus, that was the hope of his family, but instead, after he had died, Jesus raised him from the dead. I see this as a metaphor for our world. It is not God's intention to heal the world, but to destroy it and raise it to new life.
