I've been asked by a few different friends these past few days why I believe in a God, and why that God would allow suffering.
Both good questions, and I hope I gave them good answers.
I don't tend to get into the dramatic arguments about whether someone can, or should, use the Bible as a source of validity for faith. For those who want to believe, the Bible provides enough historical evidence to satisfy, and for those who don't want to believe, there will never be enough evidence. I don't tend to dredge up lots of articles on archaeological excavations in the Middle East, and I am not, nor ever shall be, a language expert that can trace roots and word usage of ancient texts through the journeys of a nomadic people. I am intrigued by much of that stuff, and try and do my own personal reading and study when I can fit it in, and I do read some apologetics, but those aren't the big questions I spend a lot of time pondering.
Faith is faith, for a reason. Unlike the Apostles who saw Christ risen, or St. Paul who met the Lord on the road to Damascus, I have not been presented with an "in person- touch the wounds in the Hands" experience. (And I don't need it.) To believe in Christ, even with the Bible, and the archaeological findings, and the historical writings by non-Christians, takes faith. (But then again, most things in life take faith. Faith that society will continue. Faith that your spouse will be true. Faith that other drivers will obey traffic laws. So on, and so forth. Much of our daily lives are built on issues of faith.) When someone today is willing to take a stand for their faith, to die for their faith, they are taking a leap into unknown, and trusting God will catch them in this life, or the next. We do not have the guarantees that those original followers had; they must have truly believed they had seen Christ rise again...or else why would they have gone so willingly to be tortured and killed for His Name's sake? Would they have willingly gone to the cross, the arenas, to the beheading sword for what they knew was a lie? Or did they go, with hymns and prayers and meekness because they truly believed they had seen their risen Lord?
I have faith because Christianity gives me what no other religion or belief system has; and I studied, read, talked and explored other religious venues. It gives me hope. A reason that this world has gone mad, and what is being done to fix it. An answer to death and a promise of life. Christianity, and her preponderance of writers gives me intellectual fodder, her musicians (I tend to like high church music myself) inspire me, and her art touches me. The fellowship found with other believers gives me companionship and a sense of brotherhood/sisterhood, and the teachings of the faith give me direction and purpose.
But more than that, Christianity, for all her benefits, is simply the vehicle by which I encountered Jesus Christ; who has given me everything. When people talk about a "personal relationship"....I have it, as well as a communal relationship through the Church, and an intellectual relationship through the richness of the Bible and the teachings of centuries worth of writers. I was blessed to be raised in a church going family, with wonderfully devout parents. I was even more blessed that I was raised attending a church that valued scholarship, study and a personal accountability before Christ. But even with all of that, I had my periods of doubt, and anger at what seemed a cruel world and an absentee God. (Ever notice that people who don't want to believe in God believe in Him enough to blame Him for atrocities and suffering? It's like "angry teenager syndrome" but for years...been there, done that, got bored with it and moved on.) It took years, and the twists and turns of life before, as CS Lewis says, "I gave in and admitted that God was God." I had always had the intellectual knowledge of what Christianity taught, but until that time, I had never had the experience of what the Holy Spirit does when it kicks into high gear.
Christ changed me, and continues to change me. When I asked for the grace to be more compassionate, He began breaking my heart for almost everyone I knew. And unless, in a fit of the melancholy I can be prone towards, I let go of His peace, I can always feel His presence no matter what the storms of life are. When Charles and I were told I had cancer some years back, and after breaking my parent's hearts with that news and making the long drive back home, we were able to praise God, who gives and takes away, even in the midst of that storm. It was praise with tears mingled in, but still the truest praise I have ever offered. In that storm, God proved Himself to be my harbor. And through that storm, Christ proved to be my healer; for that cancer was miraculously gone when they did surgery, and only a blood sac remained.
I believe because Christ is so interwoven in my heart and soul that He cannot be cut out. When you truly give of yourself to Christ, when you surrender to Him, He tells you what He is going to do with you- He is going to make you a new creation. That will involve breaking down the old you and rebuilding a better you. And I can see in a hundred ways over the years just how He has done that with me...and since I need a lot of work, He's going to be at it for a long time yet!
I believe because I cannot fathom not believing; it is no longer an option for me. Christ has claimed all.
As to why there is suffering; because this is a fallen world. Just as people can choose to be kind, loving, and wonderful, they can also choose to be cruel, selfish and horrid. There are far better teachers and writers than I will ever be who tackle why there is pain, suffering and death; and I advise those with such questions to seek them out. All I know is this; this world is fallen, and people are hard on each other. Death is wretched, suffering is horrific, and apathy and indifference are amongst the worst of human attributes.
Why doesn't God do something? He has, in many cases. But He doesn't want robots, so He doesn't micromanage how we all feel, or act; we know what is right from wrong and yet so often, even and especially in the little things of life, we take the shortcuts, the easy path, the small wrong because we think we can get away with it. The Bible teaches that there isn't one righteous person, and when you look at the world today, you can believe it. We feel good about ourselves because we compare ourselves to someone else we disagree with....and thus we look good in comparison. But when we, in the quiet, still moments of the night, look at ourselves against a standard of true goodness, then we see how far each of us has fallen, how broken we all are.
God tells us that He is going to make this all right; this mess is going to be fixed. Christ dying on the cross is about that; reconciling the sinful to God, if only they will come. The Cross tells us that God will go to almost any length, short of ignoring sin, to bring us back to Him, and He promises that heaven and earth will be made anew. On that day there will be more more tears of sorrow, and no more heartache. God will make all wrongs right.
Okay, you say, but what about now? What about my sadness, my sorrow, my brokenness, my heartache, my sick child, the atrocities around the world...what about these, now? The future may be dandy, you say, but what about now?
I can attest that God does still work miracles; I've had them, and I know others. But He doesn't answer every prayer with the answer we want to hear. Sometimes death comes, and only God knows why. But, beloved friend, just as Christ wept for Lazarus, He weeps for your sorrow, you do not cry alone. And just as Christ had a plan for Lazarus, He has a plan now. He is our co-suffering savior, we carry no burden by ourselves, we never suffer alone. He always takes the bigger share. And many things, if you give them to Him, He will take, but that takes trust and the willingness to give that burden up.
And for the hungry in the world, the vulnerable, the broken, the war-torn...Christ gives us this charge: we are to be as Christ to those we encounter, and so make the world a better place, if only for a moment. When we see hunger, we are not to ask God why, oh why, but instead to mobilize and feed the hungry. When we see a single mother struggling with daily life, we're to help her. When we see the outcast, we are to sit with them and bring them into our circle of fellowship. When we see atrocities, we are to be as Christ there too; like the Orthodox priests in Ukraine, or the nuns feeding the poor in Syria. If we cannot be there ourselves, we can support such people. We can build hospitals and dig wells in Africa, we can deliver medicine and food to flooded Asia. We can always do something in the face of suffering and Christ commands us to do so.
Why is there suffering? Because this is a broken, fallen world. Sitting and complaining, at each other or to God, fixes nothing. We're to get out there and ease suffering, secure in the knowledge that in the end, God will make this all right. He will fix this. Christ's death on the cross set the countdown in motion; He provided the means to fix the brokenness of our souls, and He'll fix the brokenness of our world too.
What that all leaves me with is a rather simple faith; one that revolves around the love that God has for me and that because He so loves me, I am able to love Him in return. That inspires a deeper love for neighbor; not for a "reward" from God and not to secure my salvation; for Christ secured that, and good deeds do not get you a reward. You do acts of love for others because in them you see a glimpse of God; for we are all made in His image. It makes each person exceedingly valuable; not for what they do or have, but simply because they are. Such a faith makes the the world around even more beautiful, because each created tree, rock, animal, etc is an echo of the Word of God, for He spoke them into being. (And no, I'm not getting into a discussion of how the world was made, for I really don't care. Science is but one way to explore the wonders of what God has made.) The coin or currency of my faith is love. I think the narrow road Christ talked about is one of love; that many people will choose not to be loving, not to love God or neighbor, but instead only themselves. And how lonely it is to be outside the fellowship of love, even if it is the road one set themselves upon. I'd much rather spend my time in the warm company of Jesus than to try and walk this life alone.
Jesus taught that when we see Him, through the Bible, through His teachings, we see God. "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9) What do we see when we look at Christ; the depth of love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness and understanding are astounding. I may make my faith too simple, but I think I'll continue studying love and trying to be love. If God is greater than I can imagine, then I can't fathom His love, mercy and kindness, nor His holiness and righteousness. I am so thankful that Christ stands to intercede for me before that holiness, that instead of judgement I can rest in love.
There are a lot of hard questions in this life, and often the answers are messy and hard as well. We're all broken people, rubbing our edges off against each other. Christianity will not give you every answer the moment you demand it, it will however lead you down the paths of great questions, and the answers will come....but you'll have to be ready first.
Be blessed, my friends, and may you be a blessing unto someone else.
-Beth Haynes Butler
Both good questions, and I hope I gave them good answers.
I don't tend to get into the dramatic arguments about whether someone can, or should, use the Bible as a source of validity for faith. For those who want to believe, the Bible provides enough historical evidence to satisfy, and for those who don't want to believe, there will never be enough evidence. I don't tend to dredge up lots of articles on archaeological excavations in the Middle East, and I am not, nor ever shall be, a language expert that can trace roots and word usage of ancient texts through the journeys of a nomadic people. I am intrigued by much of that stuff, and try and do my own personal reading and study when I can fit it in, and I do read some apologetics, but those aren't the big questions I spend a lot of time pondering.
Faith is faith, for a reason. Unlike the Apostles who saw Christ risen, or St. Paul who met the Lord on the road to Damascus, I have not been presented with an "in person- touch the wounds in the Hands" experience. (And I don't need it.) To believe in Christ, even with the Bible, and the archaeological findings, and the historical writings by non-Christians, takes faith. (But then again, most things in life take faith. Faith that society will continue. Faith that your spouse will be true. Faith that other drivers will obey traffic laws. So on, and so forth. Much of our daily lives are built on issues of faith.) When someone today is willing to take a stand for their faith, to die for their faith, they are taking a leap into unknown, and trusting God will catch them in this life, or the next. We do not have the guarantees that those original followers had; they must have truly believed they had seen Christ rise again...or else why would they have gone so willingly to be tortured and killed for His Name's sake? Would they have willingly gone to the cross, the arenas, to the beheading sword for what they knew was a lie? Or did they go, with hymns and prayers and meekness because they truly believed they had seen their risen Lord?
I have faith because Christianity gives me what no other religion or belief system has; and I studied, read, talked and explored other religious venues. It gives me hope. A reason that this world has gone mad, and what is being done to fix it. An answer to death and a promise of life. Christianity, and her preponderance of writers gives me intellectual fodder, her musicians (I tend to like high church music myself) inspire me, and her art touches me. The fellowship found with other believers gives me companionship and a sense of brotherhood/sisterhood, and the teachings of the faith give me direction and purpose.
But more than that, Christianity, for all her benefits, is simply the vehicle by which I encountered Jesus Christ; who has given me everything. When people talk about a "personal relationship"....I have it, as well as a communal relationship through the Church, and an intellectual relationship through the richness of the Bible and the teachings of centuries worth of writers. I was blessed to be raised in a church going family, with wonderfully devout parents. I was even more blessed that I was raised attending a church that valued scholarship, study and a personal accountability before Christ. But even with all of that, I had my periods of doubt, and anger at what seemed a cruel world and an absentee God. (Ever notice that people who don't want to believe in God believe in Him enough to blame Him for atrocities and suffering? It's like "angry teenager syndrome" but for years...been there, done that, got bored with it and moved on.) It took years, and the twists and turns of life before, as CS Lewis says, "I gave in and admitted that God was God." I had always had the intellectual knowledge of what Christianity taught, but until that time, I had never had the experience of what the Holy Spirit does when it kicks into high gear.
Christ changed me, and continues to change me. When I asked for the grace to be more compassionate, He began breaking my heart for almost everyone I knew. And unless, in a fit of the melancholy I can be prone towards, I let go of His peace, I can always feel His presence no matter what the storms of life are. When Charles and I were told I had cancer some years back, and after breaking my parent's hearts with that news and making the long drive back home, we were able to praise God, who gives and takes away, even in the midst of that storm. It was praise with tears mingled in, but still the truest praise I have ever offered. In that storm, God proved Himself to be my harbor. And through that storm, Christ proved to be my healer; for that cancer was miraculously gone when they did surgery, and only a blood sac remained.
I believe because Christ is so interwoven in my heart and soul that He cannot be cut out. When you truly give of yourself to Christ, when you surrender to Him, He tells you what He is going to do with you- He is going to make you a new creation. That will involve breaking down the old you and rebuilding a better you. And I can see in a hundred ways over the years just how He has done that with me...and since I need a lot of work, He's going to be at it for a long time yet!
I believe because I cannot fathom not believing; it is no longer an option for me. Christ has claimed all.
As to why there is suffering; because this is a fallen world. Just as people can choose to be kind, loving, and wonderful, they can also choose to be cruel, selfish and horrid. There are far better teachers and writers than I will ever be who tackle why there is pain, suffering and death; and I advise those with such questions to seek them out. All I know is this; this world is fallen, and people are hard on each other. Death is wretched, suffering is horrific, and apathy and indifference are amongst the worst of human attributes.
Why doesn't God do something? He has, in many cases. But He doesn't want robots, so He doesn't micromanage how we all feel, or act; we know what is right from wrong and yet so often, even and especially in the little things of life, we take the shortcuts, the easy path, the small wrong because we think we can get away with it. The Bible teaches that there isn't one righteous person, and when you look at the world today, you can believe it. We feel good about ourselves because we compare ourselves to someone else we disagree with....and thus we look good in comparison. But when we, in the quiet, still moments of the night, look at ourselves against a standard of true goodness, then we see how far each of us has fallen, how broken we all are.
God tells us that He is going to make this all right; this mess is going to be fixed. Christ dying on the cross is about that; reconciling the sinful to God, if only they will come. The Cross tells us that God will go to almost any length, short of ignoring sin, to bring us back to Him, and He promises that heaven and earth will be made anew. On that day there will be more more tears of sorrow, and no more heartache. God will make all wrongs right.
Okay, you say, but what about now? What about my sadness, my sorrow, my brokenness, my heartache, my sick child, the atrocities around the world...what about these, now? The future may be dandy, you say, but what about now?
I can attest that God does still work miracles; I've had them, and I know others. But He doesn't answer every prayer with the answer we want to hear. Sometimes death comes, and only God knows why. But, beloved friend, just as Christ wept for Lazarus, He weeps for your sorrow, you do not cry alone. And just as Christ had a plan for Lazarus, He has a plan now. He is our co-suffering savior, we carry no burden by ourselves, we never suffer alone. He always takes the bigger share. And many things, if you give them to Him, He will take, but that takes trust and the willingness to give that burden up.
And for the hungry in the world, the vulnerable, the broken, the war-torn...Christ gives us this charge: we are to be as Christ to those we encounter, and so make the world a better place, if only for a moment. When we see hunger, we are not to ask God why, oh why, but instead to mobilize and feed the hungry. When we see a single mother struggling with daily life, we're to help her. When we see the outcast, we are to sit with them and bring them into our circle of fellowship. When we see atrocities, we are to be as Christ there too; like the Orthodox priests in Ukraine, or the nuns feeding the poor in Syria. If we cannot be there ourselves, we can support such people. We can build hospitals and dig wells in Africa, we can deliver medicine and food to flooded Asia. We can always do something in the face of suffering and Christ commands us to do so.
Why is there suffering? Because this is a broken, fallen world. Sitting and complaining, at each other or to God, fixes nothing. We're to get out there and ease suffering, secure in the knowledge that in the end, God will make this all right. He will fix this. Christ's death on the cross set the countdown in motion; He provided the means to fix the brokenness of our souls, and He'll fix the brokenness of our world too.
What that all leaves me with is a rather simple faith; one that revolves around the love that God has for me and that because He so loves me, I am able to love Him in return. That inspires a deeper love for neighbor; not for a "reward" from God and not to secure my salvation; for Christ secured that, and good deeds do not get you a reward. You do acts of love for others because in them you see a glimpse of God; for we are all made in His image. It makes each person exceedingly valuable; not for what they do or have, but simply because they are. Such a faith makes the the world around even more beautiful, because each created tree, rock, animal, etc is an echo of the Word of God, for He spoke them into being. (And no, I'm not getting into a discussion of how the world was made, for I really don't care. Science is but one way to explore the wonders of what God has made.) The coin or currency of my faith is love. I think the narrow road Christ talked about is one of love; that many people will choose not to be loving, not to love God or neighbor, but instead only themselves. And how lonely it is to be outside the fellowship of love, even if it is the road one set themselves upon. I'd much rather spend my time in the warm company of Jesus than to try and walk this life alone.
Jesus taught that when we see Him, through the Bible, through His teachings, we see God. "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9) What do we see when we look at Christ; the depth of love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness and understanding are astounding. I may make my faith too simple, but I think I'll continue studying love and trying to be love. If God is greater than I can imagine, then I can't fathom His love, mercy and kindness, nor His holiness and righteousness. I am so thankful that Christ stands to intercede for me before that holiness, that instead of judgement I can rest in love.
There are a lot of hard questions in this life, and often the answers are messy and hard as well. We're all broken people, rubbing our edges off against each other. Christianity will not give you every answer the moment you demand it, it will however lead you down the paths of great questions, and the answers will come....but you'll have to be ready first.
Be blessed, my friends, and may you be a blessing unto someone else.
-Beth Haynes Butler
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