DON’T BLAME GOD

Whenever bad things happen to us not of our own making, like being in the wrong place at the wrong time, we almost automatically wonder what we did to deserve what has just happened. Did we do something sinful in our past the punishment for which is now catching up with us? After all, if we believe that we experience hell in this life, that we are going to pay for this life’s sins in the here-and-now and not in the hereafter, then this unforeseen and unexpected bad thing is simply our payment come due.

Makes sense to a degree. But usually the sin-come-punishment is tit for tat and we are acutely aware that we are now paying for our foolishness, even sinfulness. What is even worse is that even after once or twice having painfully paid for our discretions, we continue to do those things, say those words, that we know, sooner or later, will bring pain and suffering into our lives let alone many times into the lives of others, often the ones we love the most. So why do we continue to do it?

That’s the real question, isn’t it? The answer is simple: free will. While we want to believe that a good and loving God would never allow unjust pain and suffering to come our way; and while we want to believe that this same God would stop us in or tracks before we say or do that will bring pain and suffering to us and, even more, pain and suffering to others, God does not interfere.

In that sense God is at fault for giving us free will. Without it we would all be robots always doing the right and loving thing and never saying or doing anything that was not. That would not be much of a life. So blame God for free will that allows to do what we should not and then suffer the consequences for our misdeeds, but don’t blame God for allowing us to do what we know we should not do in the first place and enjoying it…until the consequences kick in.

God does not interfere with the workings of nature nor the workings of us human beings. What God does do is enjoy the fruits of our loving actions with us and cries when we are in pain because of the forces of nature, the consequences of the sins of others and of ourselves and, I think, especially when we keep doing what we know will bring pain and suffering to us to and others and do nothing to prevent it.

Why God created this world and the inhabitants thereof the way God did is a question whose answer will have to wait until eternity because no one of us smart enough to provide an adequate answer. Blaming God for what is wrong in this world may make us feel good and give us an excuse for the bad that happens, but it is simply a cop out. We have no one else to blame but ourselves, individual and collectively.

Our responsibility that comes with free will is to say and do that which we know God would have us say and do. Then we won’t have God to blame.