The problem of evil

I often hear that one of the toughest questions faced by a Christian is “Why does a good and loving God allow evil in the world?” Here’s my suggested answer(s)...

1. God allows us to have freedom. We have the ability to make choices and decisions. As such, man chooses to commit evil. Now, certainly God could judge and punish evildoers right then and there.. but that leads us to the second reason God allows evil.
2. Where should God start? Should He start by judging the most heinous evils and move down from there? Or start small and move up? We’re all evil. We all do evil... so if He were to eradicate evil, he’d have to eradicate mankind. I’m sure the response to this would have something to do with the existence of ‘varying degrees of evil’. So maybe God should stomp out the big evils, but let the others slide. But what’s a big evil? Even our ‘small’ evils can have devastating consequences. A harsh word or lack of love from a parent can help to create a child that grows up to be a serial killer. That ‘small’ evil would have big consequences. (all this is not even considering the fact that God cares about the individual heart and not about the severity of the evil) Really the question of evil must be rephrased to something like “Since I commit evil, how can a good and loving God allow me to live?”. But instead, we like to turn it and make it man-centered. How can God, who is obviously here to cater to our needs, allow extreme evils, which impact us humans negatively, to exist? It comes back to our religiousity and our belief that man is inherently good and that, if not for a few bad apples, our society would be doing pretty well. Unfortunately, sociological studies disprove this. In almost every instance where people are given power over others, they abuse it. It’s our nature. God is perfectly good and perfectly just and if He is to eradicate evil, He must eradicate mankind.
3. Evil allows us to know more about God and about the very existence of true good. Light cannot be known without darkness. By God allowing evil, we are able to see His goodness, grace and mercy more fully.

I really think all three of these points work together, but not alone. For example, if I believe that God allows evil just so we can know His good qualities more fully, then what about Adam and Eve? They wouldn’t have known God fully and God’s creation, which was initially good, would be incapable of representing Him fully. But, because we were allowed freedom of choice, and chose to commit evil, the best available response from God is to allow evil and to demonstrate His love, mercy and grace in spite of that evil.

I can’t help but think that if this played out how many people think it should, it would go something like this:

• A man commits murder, and is vaporized by God. People fear God and try to be good.
• A woman abuses her children, and gets vaporized by God. People fear God more and try to be good.
• A man steals from a charity, and gets vaporized by God. People begin to live their lives in fear, trying to do good.

The problems with this are many. 1) This is not the gospel and it’s not what God wants. God doesn’t want people terrified of Him who try to do good to avoid being zapped. There’s no way people would desire a relationship with this God. They would NOT feel at peace. They would NOT feel safe or protected. They’d feel terrified about what they might do to kindle His wrath. This is similar to the Twilight Zone episode where a town lives in terror under the reign of an omnipotent child who can even read peoples minds.

But again, the biggest problem with this is that evil is done by everyone. In reality, the above example would look more like this:

• A man commits genocide, and is vaporized by God.
• A woman commits murder, and is vaporized by God.
• A man molests a child, and gets vaporized by God.
• A woman abuses her children, and gets vaporized by God.
• A man steals from a charity, and gets vaporized by God.
• A teenager bullies another student, and gets vaporized.
• A woman commits adultery, and gets vaporized.
• A man loses his temper, and hits his wife, and gets vaporized.
• A 14 year old child tells his 10 year old sister she’s stupid, and gets vaporized.

These are all evil, are they not? I mean, they definitely have varying degrees of impact upon other people and society, but they are all a form of evil. So... who should God judge? Where does He start and stop?

Evil is an ongoing, ever present problem that is perpetrated by humankind and which is dealt with by the cross of Christ. We all commit evil, and Jesus fixes it by taking our place when it comes time for God to dole out judgment....because don’t be mistaken, God WILL judge and punish EVERY instance of evil. EVERY instance... He is perfectly holy and just... but He’s also perfectly merciful and gracious and He has given us a way out. That way out is made available by simply acknowledging the evil in our hearts, desiring to turn from that evil, and placing our faith and hope in Jesus to take our place when punishment is due and to change our hearts in a way that helps us to turn and follow Him. That is, in a very simple explanation, the gospel.

Despicable me...

The heart is deceptive, not only able to deceive others, but even its owner.

This is something I've said, taught, preached, etc.... I mean, obviously it's in the Bible, so it's not something I came up with, but man is it true! I consider myself to be pretty self-aware and introspective, but I have, in the last year, discovered some things about myself that I'd rather not have known. Okay, well, I guess a better way of saying that is that I'd like to have known about them a long time ago so that I didn't have to find out that I've been doing them for so long... vague enough? Ok.. let me get more specific. These are in chronological order, oldest to newest...

1) Firstly, I discovered that I was not a very loving person. This happened long enough ago that I actually don't remember what triggered it. But, it's true nonetheless. I'm not very loving. Sometimes this is simply due to pure selfishness, but not always. Again, things are never so simple... Often times my lack of love occurred via lack of awareness. I'm not an overly compassionate person, so I don't naturally consider the pains and needs of others. Additionally, I'm introverted, so I don't naturally desire the company of others and thus, again, don't consider their needs. I also tend to be very task oriented and I put my tasks ahead of people. And make no mistake, I'm plenty selfish as well. So, all this works together to form a mighty unloving person. Essentially I'm being the kind of person I'd not want anyone to be.

2) I think the next thing I discovered was that I had gotten into leadership for the wrong reasons. While I'd like to think that my motives weren't anything like POWER! (mwahahahaa!), in some ways they were. I think that there may have been a desire for admiration of man, for people to look up to me or to think me mature, a feeding of my pride. This is a foundational misunderstanding of the gospel (as we'll see in a moment). But, in addition to my desires to look good, I also had a desire to do full time ministry. Leadership was the path, in many ways, to full time ministry. But, as I discovered that full time (paid) ministry was not likely to be a viable option (for reasons I'd love to discuss with you some other time) I began to question why I was in leadership at all.

3) I, more often than I'd like to admit, fail to embrace the gospel. As I mentioned above, the cracks began to appear in many areas, such as in my desire to look mature. Really, a desire to look mature is born from a few reasons. Maybe I am proud, and just want to look snazzy. That can be true, though sinful. Maybe I believe that I must be good and do good to really be a Christian. Uh oh. This has been me for a long time. It's a subtle thing that I believe is an easy trap to fall into. The gospel alone, I mean God's grace alone, seems unbelievable. "Surely" we say "there must be something more... some additional requirements for God's acceptance!". Even if we don't blatantly state that, or would never SAY that, it's what we subtly believe. Oops, I see I've slipped into "we" again... I mean, it's what I subtly believed. (I'll come back to this we vs. me thing later). God has shown me (via a "cast iron pan in the face" subtlety) that I stink at living the gospel. There is so much freedom and peace when you embrace what Christ TRULY taught - namely, that we are saved by faith in Him alone. NO works, NO good deeds, NO acts of obedience will cut it. In fact, they don't even help. God doesn't love me more when I'm good. He doesn't love me more when I read my Bible. God loves me perfectly all the time. He loved me enough to die for my evils...

So, when I am able to recognize that, and embrace that, my life can be lived with complete peace. I'm not "good enough", but that doesn't matter. The Bible says that God's strength is perfected in weakness. I need to be willing to admit my weakness and not try to act smart enough, or good enough. (Laughably, as I wrote the last couple of sentences, I thought "This doesn't sound very smart... certainly not my best bit of writing." Wow... ironic with a capital I.)

4) I most often mistake God's gifts for God himself... and thus love the gifts more than the giver. I'd say I first started on the path to discovering this as I began reading "Enjoying the presence of God" by Jan Johnson. That book is, among other things, about learning to, as close as possible, approximate what Paul spoke of when he said to "pray without ceasing". It's about learning to enjoy God's presence constantly, rather than boxing Him into a "quiet time" or a "worship service".

God used that book, plus my own conviction, plus my wife's suggestion, to reveal more fully some of the errors in my heart. I've discovered that I really do seek my own pleasure and that even when I seek to make things orderly and good (a fine desire) I twist it into something ugly. I think I'm seeing that I am very good at thanking God for His gifts, but I am not very good at enjoying God Himself. He is the ultimate prize to be pursued and I'm too often satisfied with stopping at His gifts; the things which are to be pointers to Him! I do not want this to continue... I do not want my praise to terminate on His gifts. So, I'm praying He'll change me and redirect my desires yet again.

As I work through these, I praise God for #3.. God forgives me. That IS the gospel. All I have to do is accept that it's true and live a life of repentance. I am a messy, sloppy, destructive, work-in-progress. But, I pray that as I work through these things, my children will be aware that Daddy sins, but Jesus forgives him... and that by seeing this, they'll not grow up to be hypocrites, atheists, or, worst of all, pharisees.

So... that's been my year. What about yours?

Kids are like mirrors...

We're discovering more and more that our kids are very much like us. We've found that Danya is an extroverted version of me, while Shea is an introverted version of Corey. How so? Danya is very logical, black and white, has a strong sense of justice (because of this strong sense of justice, she, like her daddy, argues with and corrects people.... a lot), and chews her nails (unfortunately both of her parents are fidgety). She often tells us we have to read her the bible at night because "It's important." We've had to explain to her WHY it's important, and that it is NOT because God will love us more or that God demands us to read. Danya could easily be a legalist, and will have to harness her powers for good.

Shea, on the other hand, is emotional and compassionate, relational (her toys, silverware, crayons, whatever, are always talking to each other), and focused. Like her mommy, if she is watching TV, or doing anything requiring a bit of focus, she completely tunes out the world. As an example of Shea's compassion, when she was 2 1/2, she came out during a movie where one of the main characters was crying. Shea looked at it, looked at us and, with tears, said "why is she crying?". Poor kid...

It'll be interesting, and scary, to see what Cooper is like....

Happy Birthday Shea-Ray

We recently celebrated Shea's 3rd birthday. First was donuts for breakfast, followed by meatballs for dinner. Next was birthday cake and presents with her grandparents. Finally,a Curious George birthday party with some of her friends. It was a jolly good time and we're so blessed to have such a beautiful and sweet little girl.















Donuts for breakfast















Dinner and cake with the grandparents















Presents















More presents















Presents with her friends















A bunch of friends at a Curious George party
















A monkey cake...

The Little Merman

Well, he's not a little mermaid, but he sure likes this "Ariel" necklace that the girls have.... any time he hears it, and I mean ANYtime and from ANYwhere, he starts singing. He can be in the middle of a screaming tantrum, and if that necklace is played, he starts singing.

Kitchen remodel

Here are the pics of our kitchen... we painted the cabinets, put on new countertops and backsplash. We're not thrilled with the backsplash we chose, but it works.

Josh the Red

So my lovely wife has been subjected to about 10 years of me talking about wanting to color my hair red (just for fun). This year, for my birthday, she finally relented and embraced the redness. I'd always intended it to be a bit more drastic, but this is probably the more mature (if that's even possible here) way to go about this. I'm assuming a lot of this will wash off later, even though they CLAIM it to be 'permanent'. If it lightens up too much, I may do it again... Maybe a less 'natural' shade next time. :)