Sometimes things happen to us that make us, force us, to step back and examine our beliefs. Those events can be both good and bad. For the unbeliever, the agnostic, the atheist, the unexpected observance of the magnificence of creation can force one to stop and think: is this all by chance? Is there not, might there not be a creative intelligence behind what I am observing?
One would think one would think such thoughts. Maybe not. Perhaps the unbeliever is so secure in his ways that nothing and no one will ever convince him that there is a God, a personal God, a loving God. Perhaps the evils of this world, man’s inhumanity to man, the unjust sufferings that innocent people undergo when an all-powerful God could put a stop to it – perhaps that is what inures some to any thought of God, any temptation to actually believe in God.
While the wonders and goodness of creation may not convince a person to think thoughts of a personal God, certainly the opposite is true. When one is suffering unjustly, when nature wreaks havoc on the innocent, when it seems that the world is going to hell in a handcart, one’s belief in God can be sorely tried and tested. In fact, if it is not tested, one has to wonder how strongly one’s faith really is.
When World War II ended in Europe and the Allies were combing through the rubble of what was left in the war zones, they came across an inscription on the wall of a cellar in Cologne where Jews hid from the Nazis. It read: “I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when not feeling it. I believe in God even when he is silent.” If anyone’s, any people’s faith was tested, it was that of the Jewish people during that war.
Perhaps there were some, but I have never read or heard an interview where the Jewish people gave up their deep faith in God because of what happened to them during that War. Of course, that is also the story of the Old Testament. The faith of the people was tried and tested over and over again, And while they moaned and groaned to God when things were not going well – as we all do, they never lost their faith, never believed that God had abandoned them much less that God never existed in the first place, such was their faith.
The reality is that it is easy to point out examples of people who remained steadfast in their belief and trust in God while, at the same time, also had serious doubts as to why they should keep believing. The truth is that everyone’s faith is tested, sometimes very seriously tested. Only those who have immunized themselves to the horrors of life in this world ask no questions.
We are not of that sort. Thus, there are times in our lives when the suffering of others and especially when our own suffering forces us to ask the God question. Sometimes we wonder why we still believe when what is happening screams at us that there is no God. But we hold on, thanks be to…well, thanks be to God!
No comments:
Post a Comment