Posted on 05/19/2013 12:21:32 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
Edited on 05/25/2013 2:44:13 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
"Where were You, God?" The question arises daily as news of tragedies abound, and even from time to time as the tragedy involves ourselves. Servicemen die in a bungled military defense operation that should have been a cake walk, and no government official has credible answers. A son is shot dead in his prime by a wanton criminal. A wife dies decades too soon from a deadly disease. A busy mother dies unexpectedly from a sudden heart attack. Maybe you were emotionally abused when a child and have been saddled with a destructive habit that you acquired in an effort to escape from the torment by the only means you knew, and prayer -- once you realized you were in a trap -- seemed scant help or comfort. In these myriad situations the bitter questions often arise: "Oh Lord, where were You? Dear God, why did You roll over for this? Almighty Father, I've always heard that you are righteous and omnipotent, so why did You not act when it would have been so simple for You to stop it from happening? Oh, the heart-rending woe! Why did You lose, God?"
This is not a modern question, and it was not discovered by modern atheists, agnostics, or freethinkers. It arose many thousands of years ago to a man named Job (pronounced with a long "o") who kept a tender conscience towards God about what he did, and as a result displayed a very upright life, and was blessed with a large, loving family and many earthly riches. And yet without warning this man's world came crashing down upon him. It began with the destruction and theft of his great riches, and was topped by the loss of most of the lives of his dear family. Then, the trouble soon escalated with an inexplicable illness that covered him with sores. His wife, in an apparent hint that God was fickle and undeserving of love, in great disgust told him to curse God and die. His friends, who initially wisely comforted him in silence, then began to lecture him sarcastically about how he must have done something terribly wrong to provoke God's wrath, and his agony grew as a heated argument erupted and Job insisted he had done nothing to deserve the tragedy. Finally a wiser friend suggested that Job look to God's sovereignty, and then God answered Job from a whirlwind, challenging the limitations of Job's knowledge about what God can do. With a deeper appreciation of God's capabilities, Job stopped complaining, and soon God blessed Job twice as much as he had been blessed before.
There is a simple enough answer to the question, at least to the mind: by allowing the world and even our selves to fail so dramatically at times, God highlights His capacity to save, a faith in which we sometimes are sorely lacking, and even if we know it in our heads, our hearts are slower and lag behind that and need to be taught. For God is not merely solving complex intellectual problems. He is solving problems that encompass our entire beings that He has created and bestowed with capabilities that are an image of His own.
The last 12 years of my life causes me to question a higher power.
Ping
This is exactly the kind of situation I am talking about. Please do, by all means, question God. Question God to His very face, and weep as bitterly as you are moved to. Then stop, and listen for an answer.
...And don’t be surprised if the answer contains “I love you.”
Haven’t heard anything back. I don’t think my grandmother could get an answer, either, and she was the most devout person I’ve known in my life so far.
Think about your post..
“”Where were You, God?”
I asked the same question when I prayed before both elections that Klownie the Kenyan won’t be elected...
One can be deeply religious, and yet still be more interested in one’s spirit being invested in oneself than in being invested in our Heavenly Father. Self is one of the hardest idols to mow down in a life, and God sometimes has to bust that idol but good in order to get His voice through.
I’ve talked to priests in my parish, and didn’t really feel any better.
Am I missing something? I was never much on Chinese riddles, and vague answers to questions don’t help.
What happened to the former family that was taken away from him? Just replaced like a commodity? What's the "lesson" here that I'm missing?
Never liked the story of Job.God sounds like a smart alek,Where were you when I made the world?Who are you to question me?And replacing his children with more children?Sorry,apology not accepted.All God wanted to do was win a bet with the devil.Is that all we are in the end?Gambling chips in Gods poker game?
God is still there even in the pain and hardship. Man is a fallen creation, and with sin has come a sinful people. Lets not get into a non biblical dualism that God and Satan exist side by side dueling for mankind.
Disease, sickness, murder, corrupt government do exist but to blame God is tough.
Look at the current governmental Administration - deceit, lies, cheating and fraud were not known by many Americans. Now the truth comes out.
cancer comes about because the body’s normal responses going awry.
But sometimes the best thing is not to question God. Because God is still in charge.
remember the poem Footprints in the Sand - written by Maria Fish-Powers whom husband carrying her around in her times of ill health.
Some people make a schtick about Barack Obama... while I do believe He is a part of a divine chastisement upon America, an effort to wake it up via consequences, it isn’t yet at the point of an Adolf Hitler.
We suffer because if we didn’t we would no longer seek God, and we would begin to think that WE are all powerful, all forgiving, and all knowing.
You have been tested. Now ask for God’s help.
Our human nature would prefer not to have to digest these truths...
....we would prefer to see God as only benevolent, if not always benign toward us.
Yet God's perfections include all of His attributes. His judgment and discipline--- even Divine wrath-- remain just as perfect as holy love and mercy, and the grace, freely given, that sees us through each day as we pray and trust Him.
We find gain and suffer loss in our short time upon the earth-- but God never makes a mistake.
We have to try and keep in mind:
(1) God remains Sovereign over life and death...
(2) God's working definitions of life and death are beyond our own self-imposed limitations-- and even our complete understanding.
(3) The Kingdom of God that Jesus announced and exemplified for our Christian life, service and ministry has its own matrix of truth-- some call them spiritual laws -- the parables are illustration of these principles.
(4) The more we align ourselves with God's plans-- and avoid the seductions and schemes of the world culture all around us--the "safer" we remain.-- And our children as well when we pray for them and raise them up in the knowledge and admonition of God.
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OK... long enough...
Hope this helps... God bless.
Larger questions legitimately arise here, such as yours, and the saga of Job isn’t intended to address them all. Presumably those people went to heaven if their souls were saved (only the Lord and they know what went on in that vein). The story should be appreciated as a deep look at the divine nature, not as an encyclopedic look at it.
Beautifully written.
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