SPECIALparent

So how does God fit into all of this?

From a young age I have believed in the existence of God.  But, you may say, that is normal.  Life is simple when you are young.  It is easy to believe in something or someone like God when you haven’t experienced anything of life.  True.

I continued to believe in God as a teenager.  But that was probably easy too.  Nothing too difficult had happened in my life.  I was pretty well-behaved, didn’t drink or smoke.  And my parents believed in God – of course it was likely that I would follow suit.  True.

As a mother in her early twenties, I held my only child, knowing she could die within months.  In my mid-twenties I watched as my children struggled to achieve what most one-year-olds fly through.  I felt disappointment, grief, and loss.  But I still believed in God.  That isn’t so normal.

When we are faced with difficulty, I think that is when we truely ask the big questions.  That is when we re-evaluate and reprioritise life.  For some believers in God, it is a time to stop believing.  After all, how could God allow such a thing to happen? 

This would be the logical conclusion if you believed that being a follower of God somehow made you immune to any trouble; that bad things don’t happen to good people.  It’s funny how naive and ego-centric we can be.  We don’t seem to notice the sadness, death and disaster in the world around us until it knocks on our own door.  For many of us, it is only at this point that we begin to sit up and take notice.

Unfortunately, no matter who or what we believe in, we all live in a world which is messed up.  Life isn’t fair.  Injustice, evil, sickness, and suffering exist in abundance.  If you are lucky, it hasn’t affected you personally yet.  But it will one day.   God never promised that if you followed Him life would be easy.

So why do I believe in God? 

• Creation (even in its current messed-up state) simply cries out “Creator”.  For me it is far easier to believe in a Creator than in sheer chance. 
• Even in the darkest times I have still been aware of God’s enormous love for me.  I don’t understand what is happening in my life or why.  Sometimes I am angry, sometimes I am hurt.  But I know God has a plan and purpose for me and even the very things I often wish could be taken out of my life, I know can be put to good use by a loving God.
• Life isn’t just about the here and now.  We have eternity ahead of us.  For many, eternity (or Heaven) isn’t something we give too much thought to until someone near to us dies.  Then it becomes very real and very important.  Heaven is something I have believed in for years, but has much more significance for me now that my daughter is there.

These comments/answers hardly begin to address the many questions that people raise about God in relation to suffering and death.  My comments aren’t an attempt to solve or address all of these questions, but to give you an idea of where I am coming from, and the conclusions I have drawn.  I am sure that as time goes on more thoughts about God will surface through this blog.