Why Does God Allow Suffering?
One question I hear more than any other is: "Why does God allow suffering? Isn't God our loving Father"? Before I came back into the Science of Mind way of life from my foray into the Episcopal and Lutheran churches (due to spousal request) I used to be troubled by these same questions. As I re-learned the true nature of God I remembered why God and suffering have absolutely nothing to do with each other. '
The problem is not an uncaring God, the problem is that we have created a God in our image rather than humanity being created in the image of God. God is not a super-sized human. God is not a being at all in the sense that we conceive a being. God existed before anything anywhere existed; God is First Cause - the beginning and the end of all that exists, ever has existed or ever will. God is not a person with temper, anger, compassion, feelings. God is our Creator but not our parent. There is a critical difference. You create a painting but you are not its parent. You may create a great book but you are not its mother.
Does this mean that you do not care what happens to your creation? No, not at all, but you know that you must let your creation stand on its own merits; let it be what it will become or the creation means nothing. Once you begin to understand that God is your Creator and that God wants only Good for you, you have begun to move into Spiritual Adulthood and have left that eternal Childhood that most people seem to be stuck in.
You now know that while God may wish you only Good, God cannot and will not live for you. You must make your choices, you must experience the vagaries of natural law and do what you must do to survive them. Storms and earthquakes are not sent by God, they are a natural phenomenon of this world that God created for us. They happen in order to keep the planet in balance and keep it from self-destruction. God cannot rescind the natural laws of physics or the law of cause and effect in order to make you comfortable or happy.
Likewise, God does not punish and does not reward. Only parents do that to their children. You are not a child of God, you are a child of your mother and father. But you most certainly are a creation of God and you are cherished by your Creator. In fact, you are a part of God, you are an experience God is having as you. You are not really separate from God, as you may have been taught. You are made of the very stuff of God and God lives and moves and has its being in you, just as you do in It.
Notice I do not call God Him or Her. You may do so if it makes you feel better but you and I both know that gender is a human and animal trait and God is neither. God is THE Spirit that animates all of the Universe. God does not have a penis or a vagina (what in heavens name would a Spirit need with such appliances?).
God creates with a thought every planet, every star, our Eathly home - so we know that God has a Mind beyond our comprehension. The best we can do is to call this Mind God.
Our Creator (God) wishes us all the best that we can create but It knows that no matter what happens to us or what we create in our life that we are safe, that we cannot really be hurt and can never really die. Oh yes, our bodies die but they are the husk, the capsule, that holds our Spirit and our Soul. The essence of who we are lives on forever and ever. It is made of pure energy and we know that energy is indestructible, it changes form but never is destroyed. So it is with each of us. We changed form when we were born and we will change form again when we die but we live on in one form or another.
A good analogy would be a human parent whose children were playing in a very well fenced back yard with all kinds of fun things to play with and to explore. Now this parent knows that the children can not be seriously hurt. They might skin a knee or bump their heads, but nothing can really hurt them in this yard. Would this parent need to be concerned about which game the children played or what rules they played by? Probably not.
In God's view, you are an indestructible part of Itself, so no worries!
The key to understanding this is to enlarge your view from the tiny microcosm that we live in to a cosmic view such as God has. See the big picture. As the lovely and oh so true song "From A Distance" says: "From a distance, there is no disease, no war, no poverty.... From a distance there is love and unity". Very True!
God's Richest Blessings on each one of you!
The problem is not an uncaring God, the problem is that we have created a God in our image rather than humanity being created in the image of God. God is not a super-sized human. God is not a being at all in the sense that we conceive a being. God existed before anything anywhere existed; God is First Cause - the beginning and the end of all that exists, ever has existed or ever will. God is not a person with temper, anger, compassion, feelings. God is our Creator but not our parent. There is a critical difference. You create a painting but you are not its parent. You may create a great book but you are not its mother.
Does this mean that you do not care what happens to your creation? No, not at all, but you know that you must let your creation stand on its own merits; let it be what it will become or the creation means nothing. Once you begin to understand that God is your Creator and that God wants only Good for you, you have begun to move into Spiritual Adulthood and have left that eternal Childhood that most people seem to be stuck in.
You now know that while God may wish you only Good, God cannot and will not live for you. You must make your choices, you must experience the vagaries of natural law and do what you must do to survive them. Storms and earthquakes are not sent by God, they are a natural phenomenon of this world that God created for us. They happen in order to keep the planet in balance and keep it from self-destruction. God cannot rescind the natural laws of physics or the law of cause and effect in order to make you comfortable or happy.
Likewise, God does not punish and does not reward. Only parents do that to their children. You are not a child of God, you are a child of your mother and father. But you most certainly are a creation of God and you are cherished by your Creator. In fact, you are a part of God, you are an experience God is having as you. You are not really separate from God, as you may have been taught. You are made of the very stuff of God and God lives and moves and has its being in you, just as you do in It.
Notice I do not call God Him or Her. You may do so if it makes you feel better but you and I both know that gender is a human and animal trait and God is neither. God is THE Spirit that animates all of the Universe. God does not have a penis or a vagina (what in heavens name would a Spirit need with such appliances?).
God creates with a thought every planet, every star, our Eathly home - so we know that God has a Mind beyond our comprehension. The best we can do is to call this Mind God.
Our Creator (God) wishes us all the best that we can create but It knows that no matter what happens to us or what we create in our life that we are safe, that we cannot really be hurt and can never really die. Oh yes, our bodies die but they are the husk, the capsule, that holds our Spirit and our Soul. The essence of who we are lives on forever and ever. It is made of pure energy and we know that energy is indestructible, it changes form but never is destroyed. So it is with each of us. We changed form when we were born and we will change form again when we die but we live on in one form or another.
A good analogy would be a human parent whose children were playing in a very well fenced back yard with all kinds of fun things to play with and to explore. Now this parent knows that the children can not be seriously hurt. They might skin a knee or bump their heads, but nothing can really hurt them in this yard. Would this parent need to be concerned about which game the children played or what rules they played by? Probably not.
In God's view, you are an indestructible part of Itself, so no worries!
The key to understanding this is to enlarge your view from the tiny microcosm that we live in to a cosmic view such as God has. See the big picture. As the lovely and oh so true song "From A Distance" says: "From a distance, there is no disease, no war, no poverty.... From a distance there is love and unity". Very True!
God's Richest Blessings on each one of you!
posted by Rev. Dore' Jacques Patlian at
11:31 AM
1 Comments:
This is great! So often I have wondered how to reconcile a loving God with all that happens in the world - death, destruction, war, plague.
What you say makes perfect sense.
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Anonymous, at 4:48 PM
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