Revdarth.com

Just listening to the latest wiredjesus.com podcast (click here for the site and click here for the podcast itself) about Rev. Tom Lyberg’s reflections on the death of a high school girl in his town and, in general a reflection on why crap happens in life.

As I reflect upon what he said, I deeply appreciated the honesty with which he approached the subject. He didn’t beat around the bush and try to “make sense” of tragedy in life. As he said at one point, “accidents happen.” That’s not the word of hope that is offered, but he just blasted the pastor at the funeral who talked of how we can learn from this tragedy and get our lives with Jesus right before this kind of thing happens to us. I’ve heard similar crap spewed when talking about Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast (especially New Orleans) as if God was trying to wipe New Orleans off the face of the earth because of homosexuality or abortion. Tom has it right - there really isn’t an explanation for it all as much as we wish we could discern one.

The one thing that I would add to his reflections is the allowance to really be angry at God for things in life. I think we don’t give ourselves the freedom to do that. If we do believe in an omnipotent (all-powerful) God, then no matter what direction we go, the reality is is that God has the power to stop things from happening and for some reason chooses not to. I know all the arguments about human sin, free will, etc. Regardless of these, the reality is that God has the power to do it. God has the power to heal the 36 year old single mother of 2 who is diagnosed with cervical cancer, or to eliminate a hurricane that is going to shatter the lives of thousands, or to protect the 30,000+ who lost their lives in the earthquake this week, etc etc etc. But for some reason, God chooses not to. That’s the struggle of faith - believing in a God who has the power to do these things but for some reason does not, but at the same time who does so much and does so much good in the world. An answer would be nice, but I don’t think its coming soon…