WHY MUST YOU SUFFER? (3rd in Series)

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(This is the third in a series of thoughts on the eternal question we all struggle with.)

 If God will not, cannot, intervene for the sake of good; if miracles happen but not often enough to be relied on, then what does God do and what can we rely on?

       We can rely on His love.

        "Well, three cheers and a holy hurrah," some less ecclesiastical brother might say. "God's love for the mutilated bodies of innocent little children; God's love in the presence of earthquake, fire, and flood. Tell me more."

       And more is just what I will tell you and me and anyone else who will listen, for either there is reason to this universe and behind it, or else we don't have to worry about going to hell-we're already there.

       God is love. That's the religious bone most people choke on when they get to thinking about suffering. The paradox of pain and love is just too much to swallow. Yet there it is. Either God is love, or He isn't.

       You certainly don't want a platonic relationship with your Creator.

       How do you believe He is love? I dare say you have believed God was love when you held your own infant son or daughter in your arms, or stood in the beauty of a mountain glen, or were moved by some nightly chorus singing the "Hallelujah Chorus."

       I would imagine you were not half so sure the day you buried a mother, father, husband or wife, or friends.     Is, then, God love when everything is going your way and not love when it isn't?

       Common sense knows better than that. So, yes, He is, or He isn't.

       And if He is love, then what He does and lets happen is done within the framework of compassionate reason.       What He docs and lets happen; that covers a lot of ground.

        A lot of bright mountain peaks and a lot of dark valleys.

       And that implies that He is either  supremely wise or he is very foolish.

       What I am doing is driving you into a spiritual corner. I am forcing you to voice, at least to yourself, your truthful conclusions about God-and for a very definite reason.

       You can't compartmentalize life. You can't put God out of the picture when there is some suffering you can't explain, and bring Him back in when there is some beauty you can.

       You have to define God as you see Him, and then make of this belief against life as it is.

       Paul said, "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God." Romans 8: 38, 39.

      If we accept the premise, the belief, the trust that God is love, we must then assume all happenings under His hand are good.

       And that drives us to yet another necessary conclusion: God's idea of what is good for us and ours quite often differ.

       When, then, God acts in a manner contrary to our wishes. we must say, "God, You are love and good; therefore Thy will be done," or else there is nothing else left for us to say but, "God, You are hateful and evil. and You are neither love nor good-and besides that. You arc wrong." What you therefore believe about God is very important.

       In short, your problem with the world and its suffering and where God fits into the picture is determined by what you believe about this God.

       I loved my children but  I do not love them any less when I cause them pain. I do not love them any more when I give them happiness. I love them-pure and simple-without equivocation.

       Everything I do for them or to them is based on this affection. As an imperfect man, I make mistakes; I do not beiieve a perfect God can make mistakes.

EN D

 (To be continued tomorrow)

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              POSTED ON WYRICK'S WRITING TUESDAY MARCH 13TH THOUGHTS ENTITLED "Are you a Peacemaker or a Peacebreaker?"

                 Someone has said thatpeace is merely that brief, glorious, moment in history when everyone stops to reload their weapons.

  

POSTED ON WYRICK'S WRITING SUNDAY MARCH 11TH  THOUGHTS ENTITLED ""Arrogance and Humility"

       When a company takes over another company, there is often a sign placed outside the premises announcing, UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT.

Such a sign accurately summarizes what takes place in Christian conversions.  When Christ takes over a life, that life is literally under new management.

       So consider, is God now managing your pride?  Or is your pride still managing you? 

  

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                Yes, God loves you the way you are but he loves you too much to let you stay that way.

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QUOTES ABOUT THIS WONDERFUL INSPIRING INFORMATIVE book

STILL RECEIVING RAVE REVIEWS 8 YEARS AFTER IT'S PUBLICATION.

"Positive, powerful utterances...skillfully enhancing our understanding and appreciation of Lincoln while revealing the Divine source of his strength."

        Lt. Colonel C.A. Olsen (Ret.) Asbury College (Professor Ret.)

"The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln is an extremely well written book that investigates what might be termed the spiritual side of President Lincoln. It's both scholarly and very readable. I came away impressed at Mr. Wyrick's portrayal of the President and with an altered and enlarged vision of the man:'

         William Hoffman, Award winning fiction writer; author of Blood and Guile, and Wild Thorn

 "Wyrick has authored a wonderful examination of the spirituality of one of American history's most devoutly religious leaders...a pleasant and readable book that has a rich depth of information."

       Maynard Pittendreigh Presbyterian minister

        "When it comes to invoking religion in support of any of their decisions, politicians need to sit at the feet of Abraham Lincoln. Reinhold Niebuhr once called him 'America's greatest theologian.' Why so great? Because he invariably distinguished between human works and the works of the Almighty. As Wyrick says, 'He wore the mantle of humility easily: because he was more impressed with what God was doing in the world than with what he, president of the United States in the midst of an awful crisis, was doing. That is why in his last major speech he distinguished between both human causes in the Civil War and the Almighty's 'own purposes.' Lincoln would have agreed that it is better to leave God-talk out of politics than to decorate human proposals with divinity. This is a book for our American time. Through his careful study of Lincoln's career, Wyrick compels us to remember that piety belongs in politics only when piety transcends politics."


       Dr. Donald W. Shriver

       Emeritus professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Author of An Ethic for Enemies: Forgiveness in Politics

        "v. Neil Wyrick's fine work allows the reader to appreciate Abraham Lincoln's Christian commitment and his prophetic role in American history. Should have a wide readership."
 

       James H. Smylie Professor of Church History (Ret.) Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia

        "Neil Wyrick's The Spiritual Abraham Lincoln should be read by anyone attempting to understand the man who was probably the most complex person to ever hold the office of president of the United States. Dr. Wyrick is intent on demonstrating that the spirituality so often expressed in Lincoln's writings and speeches was not merely lip service to a Deity, but rather expressions of a profound faith in a real God. It was this faith that provided the wisdom, compassion, insight and sometimes steel that Lincoln would need in full measure as he led the United States through the Civil War. Dr. Wyrick's clear and unpretentious style of presentation is very much in keeping with the character ofhis subject, and in so doing, Wyrick makes his point very well that Lincoln, his beliefs, and the faith that formed them, are as relevant to a troubled America in 2004 as they were in 1863."

       Daniel Allen Butler, author of "Unsinkable"; The Full Story of the RMS Titanic, The Lusitania and The Age o f Cunard