Why ask why?

By
Some people like to speculate on God's reasoning when something that they consider to be bad happens to them. How often do these same people speculate on God's reasoning when something good happens to them? Asking God why when something bad happens presumes that we were undeserving of our misfortune. It also presumes that we deserve any good thing that God grants us. Neither is the case.

I recently had someone speculate to me about why God would give me two autistic children. The thesis was that God must have known that I would be a good mom to my kids and that my experiences would help other parents. Now I am a good mother (if I do say so myself) and my experiences may be helpful to others but I don't see any point to speculating about why I have autistic children (aside from determining cause and possible avenues for treatment) except to make myself feel better about what is most definitely a stressful situation. (There also seems to be an assumption that this is a bad thing. Yes my life is difficult and the boys will have challenges to over come but who's to say that their being autistic is not a blessing?) Why wouldn't God give me two autistic children?

How often do you hear someone speculate about why God allowed them to wake up in the morning? Or why God gave them a roof over their head? Or provided them with good health and daily sustenance? Just about never. Why? Because we consider these things to be our due. If we were a little less self centered I think we'd realise that we don't deserve any of the good in our lives.

All of creation is corrupted by the sin of mankind. In light of this corruption the unpleasantries of life are par for the course. It's not really perplexing that we have to deal with things like autism. It is a consequence of that whole business back in Eden. This is not to say that we should turn a blind eye to the suffering of others because they brought it upon themselves with their sin. Far from it. It most certainly honors God to try to alleviate the suffering of others. We won't always succeed but we can try.

What is perplexing is that God allows any of us to draw breath in the first place. I often find myself wondering just that. We rape, pillage, and kill but God still hasn't wiped us out of existence. Why? Always, before I can even complete the thought, the answer comes back, because he loves us. Because God loves us he lets us live. Because God loves us he gives us the opportunity to be spared the eternal consequences of our sins. Because God loves us his son willing went to the cross to buy us that opportunity with his life. That kind of love is stunning. It leaves me breathless.

So I don't speculate about why when things don't personally go my way because God has already spared me from the most devastating of fates (eternal damnation) which I surely deserve and given me something that I most certainly did not deserve (salvation).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

What's in a flower?

By
Specifically hydrangea flowers. In this post I pointed out that anthocyanin (a family of plant pigments) appears blue at high pH, red at low pH and is responsible for the wide variety of colours in hydrangea flowers. Ilona pointed out that , "in hydrangeas you lower the ph for blue flowers (more acid) and raise it for pink (more alkaline)." I did a bit of checking and found that this is the case . At lower soil pH hydrangea flowers do appear blue and at higher soil pH they appear red. But soil pH is not the only thing that affects the colour of hydrangea flowers. It appears that pH inside the plant cell has an affect as well: Sepal Color Variation of Hydrangea macrophylla and Vacuolar pH Measured with a Proton-Selective Microelectrode Anthocyanin changes its color depending on pH (Goto 1987, Brouillard 1988, Goto and Kondo 1991). In strong acidic conditions it shows red, in neutral, purple and in alkaline, blue. But generally the vacuolar pH of plant cells is weakly aci
Read more

Treating autism as traumatic brain injury

By
I've been doing research into autism, dyspraxia, how the normal brain works, and how an autistic/dyspraxic brain works (or doesn't work). Traumatic injury to different parts of the brain can cause the same problems suffered by autistic and dyspraxic children. Compare this list of the functions of different parts of the brain and the problems caused by injuries to those areas with these descriptions of dyspraxia and autism. What is Developmental Dyspraxia? Developmental dyspraxia is a disorder characterized by an impairment in the ability to plan and carry out sensory and motor tasks. Generally, individuals with the disorder appear "out of sync" with their environment. Symptoms vary and may include poor balance and coordination, clumsiness, vision problems, perception difficulties, emotional and behavioral problems, difficulty with reading, writing, and speaking, poor social skills, poor posture, and poor short-term memory. Although individuals with the disorder may b
Read more

Battlestar Galactica needs more colour?

By
Here are the letters I mentioned in the previous post. The one that started it (I'm guessing these letters were written after the show's first airing at the end of 2003): Galactica Needs More Diversity The problem I had with Battlestar Galactica was there were no major and very few minor African American characters. There were no Black men in the show at all or if they were, they had virtually no screentime. In the original series, Boomer and Tigh were both played by African American actors. In this rendition of Battlestar, those characters were played by Asian and White actors. In the Caprica city, there no African American extras. On the Galactica's bridge, there was only one African American actress. Another Black actress could be found playing a religious official that swore in the new President of the colonies. This was very troubling to me. Do you not want African Americans to watch your show? Do you want to project the idea that African Americans are not part of the
Read more