Sunday, April 21, 2013

Above my pay grade

My old girlfriend, Stella, was an agnostic heading to atheist, primarily because she was hung up on the age old question "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Although I have been plagued by other questions the average agnostic asks themselves, for some reason this has never been one.

However, I have a tendency to try to solve other people's questions I don't myself ask. For instance, I found an answer to "What is a Higher Power if you're an atheist?" for someone in Adult Children of Alcoholics. So I asked myself this one and then went to the Bible, because I have found most biblical questions have biblical answers. And I was struck by this:

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."

I usually refer to this answer as "It's above my pay grade."

Now I never did share this with Stella, because I know her answer would have been some combination of "Why is God so vain that He has to show He's God?" or "Why can't He reveal himself without bad things happening?"

My answer would have been that you cannot know good without knowing bad. But she would have had an answer for that, too. I am a firm believer that when someone his bound and determined to believe (or disbelieve) something, you do yourself no favors by getting between them and their object of affection. I could tell that she had already fallen in "love" with being agnostic, so I let it go.

However, I am now reading a book which I think might have been persuasive to her. It's called The Shack and it goes at this question head on. So if my answer isn't enough for you, try the book. I think you'll be glad you did.

No comments:

Post a Comment