unanswerable questions

I'm continually stumped by the question of why God allows evil in the world and why bad things happen to good people. I was just reminded of this when I read an email from our group in China working with special needs kids telling us that a baby is not expected to live through the night and that one of the toddlers had died last night. And it reminded me of praying with someone last Sunday who was deeply troubled by the plight of the Hmong in Laos who are right now the target of genocide. I watched a couple of videos about this on YouTube and then couldn't watch any more. It was too painful.

I suppose these are questions that plagued Mother Teresa during her many years of doubt, experiencing "the dark night of the soul." Surrounded by suffering, trying to bring a little grace into a dismal world, she told her sisters to do "small acts of love with great kindness." But it must have seemed like trying to shout down a hurricane.

Yet that's how God is. Elijah was reminded of this when he didn't find God in the wind storm or the earthquake or the fire. God spoke to him in stillness. Jesus was a paradox of divine power clothed in human frailty, so much so that the powerful people of his day felt free to execute him. Rodney Stark has chronicled "The rise of Christianity", showing how Christians eventually took over the Roman Empire by doing small acts of kindness such as staying to take care of those stricken with the plagues that often ravaged Roman cities, while those with means fled to the safety of their outlying villas. In spite of the risks and the apparent futility of it all, the Christians did it because it was what Jesus taught them to do.

So I don't know the answer to the question of evil in the world, other than to say that Jesus cares about people and that I should, too. And it is by doing what I can to love those in the small part of the world that God's entrusted to me that his Kingdom will eventually triumph.

skiing lesson

I went skiing with my kids on Jan. 2. I wasn't sure how much my 5 year old would enjoy it, since he didn't seem to like it much when he was 4. I had gone down the bunny slope with him once and he ended up whining until I let him take off his skis and walk back so he could play in the snow.

He had lessons in the morning. After lunch he and I and the 2 girls took our first run together. We weren't very successful getting off the chair lift. The girls took off together. I had to keep picking him up every 50 yards or so. It's funny how going really slowly is a lot more tiring than going fast, especially when you have to bend over repeatedly to pick up 50 pounds of kid.

To my surprise, at the bottom he said, "Let's do it again!" I wasn't looking forward to it, but I did my fatherly duty and said, "Sure!" This time he only fell once and he picked himself up. Needless to say, I was very proud (and relieved). And I commended him with the words of Prov. 24:16: "For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again." We did the run a few more times and each time he only fell twice at most. He really seemed to be getting the hang of it.

Life is a lot like skiing.