How Should We Respond?
Theme of the week: Growing Through Adversity
Monday, October 1, 2012
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: O LORD, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? (Psalm 13:1) Dig Deeper: Psalm 13
We, like Penny, can't square a God who describes himself as good and loving with the indefensible atrocities of our own stories, let alone the universal abominations of the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge, the Mexican drug wars, the Indonesian network of human trafficking, and on and on. And don't get us going on the whole natural disaster thing—tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts … you name it.
In response to the intolerable dissonance of God's role in our heartbreaks, we either live in denial or ignore aspects of God's behavior that are inexplicable to us, hoping our number doesn't come up on the hardship roulette. Or we try to blot out God from his own story, just as the New Atheists have attempted to do.
Or we turn to mythologies that offer sophomoric explanations for the chaotic pain that is a part of life. Greek mythology, for example, has made a pop-culture comeback. Lacking a sensible explanation for God's "reckless" behavior, we envision our spiritual reality as a locked room ruled by hair-trigger brats who treat human beings as collateral damage in their sibling rivalry. Whatever else it is, this is an immature response to tragedy.
—Rick Lawrence in Sifted
My Response: How do I respond to tragedy that impacts others? Those closest to me? My life?
Adapted from Sifted (David C. Cook, 2011) by permission. All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.
Copyright © 2012 by Christianity Today/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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Heavenly Father, impress on my heart that you can bring good out of evil (Gen. 50:20), use difficulties to shape my character (Rom. 5:3-4), and teach me godly principles through suffering's lessons (Ps. 119:71).
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