Standing
in the Mystery
“There
is a great mystery here. By 'mystery' I do not mean temporary
ignorance that will later be swept away by additional information, or
questions that will someday be resolved by future research. I mean
mystery in the strongest possible sense—something unknowable,
something essentially beyond human understanding.”
Larry
Dossey, M.D. (Healing Words)
Do
you ever wonder why bad things happen to good people? Or conversely,
why people who are essentially self-serving and mean-spirited seem to
skate under the radar and live well and long? We talked about that
just yesterday in the spirituality group. One participant said the
Old Testament book of Job made him angry because it suggested that
God sat idly by and allowed Satan to oppress Job in terrible ways. In
essence, God colluded in Satan's plan. In some ways, we have absorbed
this attitude. When people suffer great loss or become terribly sick,
we wonder, if only momentarily, what they did to bring it on
themselves.
Some
of us would like to ascribe God's hand in all things, and therefore,
find ways to attribute both fortune and misfortune to God. We say,
“the Lord has blessed me” when we receive an unexpected gift, and
we say, “it was God's will” when something terrible happens.
Neither is worth our breath. Last week, for instance, a young boy was
shot to death downtown while he played at a skateboard park with
other children. Random, unannounced, inexplicable violence claims
hundreds of children every day. God's hand was nowhere near that. A
family traveling home from Spring Break stood in front of a
departures and arrivals sign at the Birmingham airport when the sign
came loose from its moorings and fell on them. Their ten-year-old son
died from his injuries. Unfathomable misfortune. Both these incidents
crushed the hearts of the families involved. God had nothing to do
with it.
Let
us spend a bit of time this week, Holy Week, coming to terms with the
fact that the sun shines on the bad as well as the good, and storms
fall on good as well as bad. This is life. The best we can do is give
thanks when fortune smiles on us, and grieve when tragedy occurs. We
can stand with our brothers and sisters in good times and bad. And we
can respect and appreciate the mystery of it all.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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