Let the earth tremble and the mountains tumble into the deepest sea. Let the ocean roar and foam, and its raging waves shake the mountains.
The LORD All-Powerful is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress.
Psalm 46:1-3, 11 (CEV)
Hurricane Gustav is churning . . . although not in the direct path of Katrina we still carry the emotional and spiritual scars of her . . . anxieties are running high here . . . folks are evacuating prior to a reported mandatory evacuation.
Day before yesterday one of the projected paths indicated the house I rent may not be here when I got back . . . yesterday the projections when west . . . I was relieved . . . This morning I talked to a friend of mine who is now in the projected path . . . I feel guilty now . . . the proverbial question of our faith -- why do bad things happen to good people (sounds like a book title!).
After Camille in 1969 I attended a revival with a Baptist friend of mine . . . The preacher told us that this was God’s punishment for evil . . . When I got home my Mom and Dad asked if I had enjoyed myself . . . “no” and I told them what the preacher had said.
You see we didn’t leave for Camille . . . it was horrible . . . Five humans, one cat, two dogs and five puppies . . . huddled together in my parents bedroom while water (5 nd ½ feet rushed into our downstairs, wrecking havoc then rushing out again . . . A friend of mine with his little brother spent the night in a tree after seeing the water taking not only his house but his Mom and Dad . . . we weren’t evil . . . he and his family weren‘t evil . . . I couldn’t understand this man’s words.
For the first time as my parent talked with me I (not yet a teenager) about how some people view God differently than we do . . . My Dad guided me to some reformed writings -- my introduction to what has beco
me a lifelong passsion . . . And this was the birth of the question that has dogged me since then . . . “why bad things happen to good people?”
me a lifelong passsion . . . And this was the birth of the question that has dogged me since then . . . “why bad things happen to good people?”It lead me to social work and an area of speciality that still rears it head from time to time . . . enticing me to a new vision of ministry . . . it was the driving force for the electives I took in seminary . . . it continues to color the way I read and think today . . . It is the question that I think we as a Church do poorly in addressing.
What I do know and what I can share that . . . " the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5),
Lydia
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