Big picture

During our Missions meeting today we talked about theodicy. In all fairness it makes sense to talk about, particularly when we rich Americans are headed to a suffering and poor country like Cambodia, or Israel.

One of the leaders put me on the spot and asked my opinion about the idea of evil existing in a world with a good God. I gave two answers, one about free will (which is the one I hold to, mostly) the other was about God's inability to act. (Kind of) I gave the second answer (which actually went first) mostly because I didn't appreciate being put on the spot and wanted to list off something that would make PS uncomfortable. 

There were a couple ideas that I had while people were sharing that I thought would make excellent blog conversations, so I text messaged them back to myself so as to avoid forgetting them. Sure enough I completely spaced them until I checked my e-mail and saw them.

The first idea was how we as humans can't see the Big Picture (which I agree with, there's no way any single person can see how everything affects everything else in the world) but that God can and therefore what God does God does to fit everything into the Big Picture. While that sounds great at first glance, and is even comforting to those of us here in the United States, imagine how it would feel to a person who is suffering horribly. Imagine what it would be like to be told that your children are being prostituted and you are dying of starvation because "it all fits into God's Big Picture." Imagine that that same person is being told that by a relatively rich, healthy, white American. The idea that somehow the Big Picture supersedes the immediate, basic needs of the individual is ludicrous, at least in my opinion. No 12 year-old child should be forced to sell their virginity for $150. No parent should be forced to see their children starve when they are too weak to care for them. (This isn't to say that God can't do what God does, and somehow bring Good out of the most evil of situations, it is to say that this level of suffering cannot be a part of the plan of a Good God.) All of this is most certainly food for thought as we begin to draw close to our trip to Cambodia.

The word for today is love. I realize that it was the word yesterday, but I feel like love can never be stressed too much.