There is pain, suffering and unfairness in the world. Sometimes people use this fact to disprove the existence of God. This may sound like an old and childish argument but it is actually one of the main reasons people stop practicing their faith. People who come face to face with suffering can take their anger out on God. If God loves us why are so many people dying in the world, or in constant pain due to a terminal disease. Even the most devout Catholics will ask why God didn't prevent the death of a loved one, or why he lets a loved one suffer.
God loves us so much and made us in His image, God loves us so much He sent His son to die for us, God loves us so much He gave us free will. God does not control everything we do in our lives, he gives us support when we ask. God does not make our decisions for us, He guides us when we are lost. God does not prevent bad things happening, He gives mercy and comfort to those who are suffering.
Bad things happen because we live in a world of bad people but at the same time good things happen because we live in a world of good people. To focus on the negative aspects of our lives is to ignore all the wonderful things that we have been given. There is evil present in our world, evil forces that manifest themselves in addiction, vanity, selfishness, lack of compassion, envy and all manner of negative traits. God will help us to rid ourselves of this evilness if we ask Him, but the only person we have complete control over is ourselves. If we want a better world, we need to be better people. If we want peace, we need to live peacefully. If we want a world of goodness, we need to be good people.
Most of the time those who blame God for bad things are those who have already turned their back on God. They cut Him out of their lives and then ask why he abandons them. They say they don't need His help, and they ask why they are alone. They leave a hole where God should be in their lives and search for ways to fill it with sin, they become bad people and ask why bad things happen. The only way to true goodness, true peace, true joy in the world we live is to give our lives to God. Jesus made this perfectly clear and gave us the simplest and most powerful commandment:
'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind'
Matthew 22:37
My final thought on this point is how do you know that God isn't stopping disasters every second? How do we know what our lives would be like if He abandoned us the same way we abandon Him? We are the lucky ones, we are the chosen ones, our lives are full of Love. Let us praise God and the Holy Trinity for saving us.
This weeks blog was inspired by a discussion I had at a prayer group. Our planned speaker wasn't able to attend so instead we all wrote a discussion point that we were struggling with ourselves such as 'Should priests be allowed to marry?' or 'Why is it important to abstain from meat on Fridays?' and then put them all in a hat and pulled a couple out. It was a fantastic meeting and along with being inspired by others it also made me examine more closely my own faith. Some of the topics were controversial and these led to really good, interesting and sometimes heated discussions. I would highly recommend this exercise as it helps concrete personal belief to openly discuss our faith.
May God bless you all and stop bad things happening ;)
YCM
