I don't believe that God gives anyone cancer, but apparently I do believe that sometimes, enough is enough and God should do something to get the bad stuff to back the hell off.
What the hell, God? This is completely unsat.
Meditation on This Week's Gospel
15 hours ago
God is not in control. If God was in control God would run things much better. God is present and involved in helping us to make sense of the senseless, in turning the bad into some good, and in being present when it feels like God is absent. God does not cause things, they just are. God does not allow things they just are. God does not direct things they just happen. God in creative and compassionate ways is present when all hell breaks lose to set us free from the power of hell to overwhelm and giving us the grace of the power to set us free. The theology of love and peace offers love and peace to the troubled and afflicted and transforms the affliction into the abundance of love and into agenda free loving.
ReplyDeleteMr. Paine, one might be able to infer from my title that I don't actually believe that God causes these things. I do, however, believe that the ability to express frustration, fear, and anger is vital to our relationship with God.
ReplyDeleteI thought I put a smile on here yesterday when I was too out of it to comment, but I guess I was too out if it for that either.
ReplyDeleteI do want you to know how much I appreciate this post.
So in the last day people have mentioned to me that God is in control, and also that God is not. Either way, God is probably cracking up.
It's suddenly intriguing to me that people feel a need to comment on that dimension of God, whichever way they believe. I've been realizing over the past several months that people seem to have a great need, in times of trial for OTHERS, to point out that God is however THEY conceive of God being. Interesting, don't you think?
You might mention this to your new colleagues (I'd love to hear their reflections): My analysis: Spiritual director approach to crisis: Ask the person where/how, if anywhere/way, God seems to them at the moment, and then listen to and honor their response. Pastoral approach: Make a pronouncement about God, with no particular reference to the experience of the person before you.
I'm with you on this Di, and feel a strong desire to say "back off"!
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