Over the weekend, from DC to NYC, deep snow upended schedules and canceled plans. How’d you take it?
- Yippee! Time for hot chocolate and a good book
- I was disappointed, but these things happen
- My weekend was ruined!
This ancient passage from Job still applies:
Job 37:5-7 (NIV)
God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways . . .
He says to the snow, “Fall on the earth,”
. . . he stops all people from their labor.
Yep, God’s in control.
Acceptance depends on circumstance, I think. Under those which I face…the sheer level of physical pain today might make me wonder what He’s doing, if He’s in control.
It’s tempting to say, well, I’m wrong, and He IS in control, but I suspect that the truth is more complex.
He mandated a creation that was ultimately moved by free will, which in its highest form is the freedom to choose – or reject – the salvation He offers. But to make that work, He has to allow His children – us – to suffer things that are unspeakable (and today was that for me…if you’d ever wanted to hear someone screaming in pain, you’d have been advised to drop by).
But to reach in and change the rules would have been to obviate my need for faith, and my need to CHOOSE to follow Him. If He lifted the agony, it would have been an idiot who would not have said, “Right, Mate, I’m with yer.”
He is in control. But so, in a very serious way, am I.
I’d prefer a world without suffering, but I guess that disappeared along with the Garden of Eden. You are right about our freedom to choose, Andrew, and I admire your choice to learn from your suffering and to share that wisdom with others.