This past week I listened as one of the first responders for 911 as he was interviewed. This individual had been a staunch advocate for health care for these ones who sacrificed so much. In this interview he was asked why he had become such a strong advocate. His answer was that he had a very close friend who was also a first responder who had developed a very serious form of lung cancer. He then made a comment that has stuck in my mind and that has made me shake my head every time I think of it. He said, “I don’t know why God picked him to get lung cancer and not me but since I didn’t get sick I want to help.”
The question that I have is why does he think God picked for some guy to get lung cancer? Why does God get credited for the bad stuff that happens? Why does he does he get saddled with allowing or not stopping or removing sickness, death and tragedy?
It seems to me that on some levels people who think in these terms have the wrong kind of faith or at least, too simple a faith. Some of the reasons for that can be attributed to those who have been known to give more than their fair share of bad answers. I want try to avoid lousy theology but I believe that when we’re hurting or suffering, Father is suffering and hurting with us.
At this point there are those who will say that they can understand that God didn’t cause something to happen but they are angry that he didn’t stop something from happening. This is a “stuck” faith that many suffer from because they have tunnel vision that doesn’t see the bigger picture that our desire for his intervention would have.
But then along with this I suggest that some bad things happen because people make wrong and very bad choices. Driving while you are drunk is a good example of a wrong choice. People chose to say mean things, do evil things, and not even care about the consequences. People who are addicted often lose their ability to choose anything but how to get the drug they need. The truth is that most of the evil in the world is done by people against people.
Some bad things happen indirectly because of human choices. Every year millions of dollars of damage and lives are lost due to things like tornadoes and floods. And in these events it’s not uncommon for God to get the blame. But, wait, didn't people choose to build houses in tornado alleys and flood zones? Didn't our choices have an impact on the shape and size of the disaster?
Christian theology has also said that some bad things happen because the world is out of balance. The story of human beings in the Garden of Eden is really a story of human choices upsetting the balance of order of creation. Things are out of whack and so not everything runs well or right or the way God intended. Bad things happen because the universe is out of order.
I don't think there is a single theological solution. We just don't know enough about how God operates behind the scenes. But there is an answer. When Jesus died on the cross, he is making sure that every act of injustice, every act of suffering, every dying, and every ache of every pain is now part of God's experience. God suffers with us, dies with us, mourns with us, and feels the injustice of it all. And since God is God, God does not simply empathize with us, he redeems the suffering and injustice. Every suffering, injustice, hurt, sorrow and bad thing will be met with a resurrection moment.
But in the end I think it comes to trust. What vision of God do we trust? When bad stuff happens, do we dare to trust that even as we suffer, God suffers with us. Dare we hang onto the vision, even in the face of no good evidence, that God is bigger than our greatest tragedy?
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