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The Times Colonist religion
page for the Saturday between
Good Friday and Easter (April 10,
2004) asks and attempts to answer
the question, Why does God permit
evil?
Have you ever asked that
question?
I haven't asked it, but I have
struggled with attempting to
answer it!
It has probably occurred to
you, as it has to me, that
sometimes we ask life's big
questions wrongly. I think the
question about evil is one of
those times.
As I have been writing a rough
draft on this subject, I have
been reading Unity Magazine for
March/April 2004. in it Bernie
Siegel sheds some light on the
subject. He quotes a wise old
woman who told him when he was
just a boy, "If God had made a
perfect world, it would be a
magic trick, not creation, with
no meaning or place for us to
learn and create. Creation is
work. We are the ones who will
have to create the world we are
hoping for: a world where evil is
to not respond to the person with
the disease or pain, whether it
be emotional or physical. God has
given us work to do. We will
still grieve when we experience
losses, but we will also use our
pain to help us know ourselves
and respond to the needs of
others. That is our work as our
Creator intended it to be. God
wants us to know that life is a
series of beginnings, not
endings, just as graduations are
not terminations but
commencements."
Bernie Siegel is Dr. Bernie
Siegel, who has gone on to put
those words into practice.
Instead of asking, Why does God
permit people to suffer and die
from cancer, etc.?,he has done
what he can to alleviate the
suffering and has participated in
some of the most "miraculous"
healings of cancer in medical
history!
So instead of our asking why
does God permit evil, we need to
ask, what can I do to eliminate
it, how can I live so that evil
will not come into the world? How
can I let God show me and how can
we all let God show us how to
live in harmony with the laws of
nature and with God's principles
of love and goodness?
The scholar quoted in the
Times Colonist article (Richard
Hays of Duke University) makes
this point: "Why do the powers of
wickedness continue to operate
effectively in the world? Because
the story is not over. The
climactic victory has been won on
the Cross but there is still much
residual resistance. So we live
in a tension-filled
interval."
Tension-filled intervals in
your life and mine are best dealt
with by asking the right
questions. Instead of saying, Why
did you do that? we need to say,
Let's talk it over and see how we
can understand each other.
How quickly the human family
makes progress (overcomes the
"residual resistance") involves
what all of us as individuals do.
This is one of the points I made
in last month's piece. Species
development depends upon the
development of individual members
responding to the breakthroughs,
mutations that occur.
Read with me the words of
Jesus' greatest Apostle, Paul, in
Romans 12:17-21:
Recompense to no
man evil for evil. Provide
things honest in the sight of
all men./ If it be possible,
as much as lieth in you, live
peaceably with all men./
Dearly beloved, avenge not
yourselves, but rather give
place unto wrath: for it is
written, Vengeance is mine; I
will repay, saith the Lord./
Therefore if thine enemy
hunger, feed him; if he
thirst, give him drink; for in
so doing thou shalt heap coals
of fire on his head./ Be not
overcome of evil, but overcome
evil with good.
You and I don't like to think
that God reaps vengeance, nor do
we think it is too spiritual to
heap coals of fire on someone's
head, but scripture often needs
understanding and interpretation.
The message is, Don't take into
your own hands how other souls
work out their salvation. Leave
the unfolding, growing, learning
process to their
relationship with God!
My message here is "overcome
evil with good." When the
consciousness of humanity is all
good, there will be no evil.
Evil, as sin, is missing the
mark, but God has another arrow
in our quiver!
Don
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