Tsunami Crisis of Faith?
The past couple of days, I have watched, listened, and read that many people of many faiths are questioning their beliefs in God following the earthquake and tsunami that killed over 150,000 in and around the Indian Ocean. Frankly, I'm amazed that something like a natural disaster could shake people's faiths, but then I guess I'm amazed that people's faiths seem to be so much based on God protecting them from trials and tribulations.
I guess a lot of people still believe in a God who controls the natural world, a God who visits terrible natural events on bad people and protects good people from bad things happening to them or those they love. I guess I haven't believed in that kind of God for a long time.
I suppose my God isn't as all-powerful as the God I was taught to believe in. My God can no more stop an earthquake than I can. However, my God is in the earthquake and the tsunami and the death and the miraculous escapes from death and in the relief efforts and in the healing.
My God is the God who says, "Be still and know that I am God," from the Hebrew Testament. My God neither wills my destruction nor my safety. My God is simply there to lend me the strength I need to do what needs to be done next. My God puts people in front of me so that I can help them, or not, as I choose.
It's not that the God I conceptualize doesn't care, nor do I think my concept of God is somehow superior to other concepts. To me, God simply is and infuses everything for the good, even if I don't understand it, perhaps especially if I don't understand it.
Ever since I came back from Vietnam, my basic life philosophy has been that shit happens, and people die. Where is God in that? God made it possible for life to exist and take whatever form life could or would take. From that beginning, whatever happens happens, and neither God nor I can do anything about it.
I guess a lot of people still believe in a God who controls the natural world, a God who visits terrible natural events on bad people and protects good people from bad things happening to them or those they love. I guess I haven't believed in that kind of God for a long time.
I suppose my God isn't as all-powerful as the God I was taught to believe in. My God can no more stop an earthquake than I can. However, my God is in the earthquake and the tsunami and the death and the miraculous escapes from death and in the relief efforts and in the healing.
My God is the God who says, "Be still and know that I am God," from the Hebrew Testament. My God neither wills my destruction nor my safety. My God is simply there to lend me the strength I need to do what needs to be done next. My God puts people in front of me so that I can help them, or not, as I choose.
It's not that the God I conceptualize doesn't care, nor do I think my concept of God is somehow superior to other concepts. To me, God simply is and infuses everything for the good, even if I don't understand it, perhaps especially if I don't understand it.
Ever since I came back from Vietnam, my basic life philosophy has been that shit happens, and people die. Where is God in that? God made it possible for life to exist and take whatever form life could or would take. From that beginning, whatever happens happens, and neither God nor I can do anything about it.
posted by Tom | 3:03 PM
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