8.10.10

Makes No Mistakes

At age 26, one of my best friends was diagnosed with breast cancer. At age 35, the first of my high school graduating class died of breast cancer. At age whatever-we-are-now, there are three others fighting the disease.

Used to be that the C-word was whispered in polite conversation. My mama always lowered her voice when speaking of cancer, mental illness, or divorce. At least she acknowledged them. The things that were never spoken of were politics, religion, and sex. And money, who had it and how much of it they had.

I see postings on my high school friends’ Facebook pages offering prayers for their health in dealing with cancer. Or financial trouble. Or relationship trouble. And yet I’m puzzled.

These are the same people whose Biblical-inerrancy, ham-fisted, God-is-always-right theology drove me away from my fundamentalist evangelical upbringing.

Really? God makes no mistakes?

So, all these loving, caring women were destined to suffer agonizing treatments and, for some, death? If God is really the omniscient puppet master of the universe who makes no mistakes, then why do we walk 30 miles every year or don pink shirts to race for a cure? If it was meant to happen, shouldn’t we stand back and let God’s will be done?

Or is God the Great Watchmaker of the universe? I’ve been reading too much Kierkegaard. Which reminds me . . . [Finola, if you’re reading this, which ancient or medieval philosopher are you studying currently?]

Is all life really suffering? Wait, I’m getting my religions mixed up.

This is one of those great conundrums that remains with me as I continue on my pilgrimage to a better relationship with God.

Where do you fall in the great debate? Did God create the heavens and the earth and step back to see what would happen? Or does God orchestrate every action from who gets a cancer diagnosis to who gets shoved into a gas chamber? Or is it something in between? And if it’s something in between, how and why does God make His choices? Is that what 1 Corinthians 13:12 was alluding to?

1 comment:

  1. Oh my.. it would take a very long comment to tell you my answers to these questions! No, I don't believe He causes illness, hurricanes, etc. I believe they are natural outcomes to the way mankind has treated the earth and themselves, and the devil's manipulation of the world. We don't individually cause ourselves sickness, necessarily, unless we eat an unhealthy diet, and live an unhealthy life style.. then we get what that gives. God has nothing to do with it. Much of the bad in the world is just the outcropping of the world's choices over centuries. If you seek Him, He will cause good things to come from those circumstances.. although they might not seem so good at the time! His nature is to give and help.. and love. But we pay the price for mankind's choices, from Eve on down. That's kind of a simplistic nutshell..

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