Monday, August 20, 2007 10:30 AM
Hello, I'm fine all these while :D
Here's something that inspired me during Summer:
We cant pray that He make our lives free of problems; this wont happen and it is probably just as well. We cant ask Him and those we love immune to disease, because He cant do that. We cant ask Him to weave a magic spell around us so that bad things will only happen to other people, and never to as.
People who pray for courage, for strength to bear the unbearable, for the grace to remember what they have left instead of what they have lost, very often find their prayers answered. They discover that they have more strength, more courage than they ever knew themselves to have. Where did they get it? I would like to think that their prayers helped them find that strength. Their prayers helped them tap hidden reserves of faith and courage which were not available to them before.
We dont have to beg or bribe God to give us strength or hope or patience. We need only turn to Him, admit that we cant do this on our own.
Our moral freedom means that, if we choose to be selfish or dishonest, we can be selfish and dishonest, and God will not stop us. If we want to take something that does not belong to us, God will not reach down and pull our hand away from the cookie jar. If we want to hurt someone, God will not intervene to keep us from doing it. All He will do is to tell us that certain things are wrong, warn us that we will be sorry for having done them, and hope that, if we dont take His word for it, we will at least learn from experience.
Why, then, do bad things happen to good people? One reason is that our being human leaves us free to hurt each other, and God cant stop us without taking away the freedom that makes us human. Human beings can cheat each other, rob each other, hurt each other, and God can only look down in pity and compassion at how little we have learned over the ages about how human beings should behave.
Actually, being angry at God wont hurt God, and neither will it provoke Him to take measures against us. If it makes us feel better to vent our anger at Him over a painful situation, we are free to do it. The only thing wrong with doing it is that what happened to us was not really God's fault. What do we do with our anger when we have been hurt? The goal, if we can achieve, would be to be angry at the situation rather than at ourselves, or at those who might have prevented it or are close at us trying to help us, or at God who let it happen. Getting angry at ourselves makes us depressed. Being angry at other people scares them away and makes it harder for them to help us. Being angry at God erects a barrier between us and all the sustaining, comforting resources if religion that are there to help us at such times. But being angry at the situation, recognizing it as something rotten, unfair, and totally undeserved, shouting about it, denouncing it, crying over it, permits us to discharge the anger which is part of being hurt, without making it harder for us to be helped.
- adapted from
"When Bad Things Happen To Good People"