First, I could use some prayers sent my mom's best friend's way. They have been long time best friends sharing family vacations, babysitting weekends, picnics, school events, sporting events, you name it. About two years ago, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer (stage 3). Her prognosis went from bad, to better, to bad, to neutral, and recently, bad again. She's suffered through infections, chemo, more infections, additional surgeries, and is currently in the hospital awaiting news on whether she has a new infection or whether there are more tumors. She's lost a lot of weight, she's on a feeding system full time for the rest of her life, and it's tearing my mom up. I don't handle personal suffering very well, and while this isn't a direct family member, it kills me to see this happen to a person like this. I know everyone questions life changing events, and why certain things happen to people that are seemingly undeserving of such misfortune, but I find myself asking "why" a lot. Why is is children who barely get to live their lives are taken with cancer? Why do innocent people, caring people, people who only bring joy to other people's lives get taken away so early, and often, in a suffering manner? I believe there is a god. What I don't get, is WHY people such as my mom's friend have to suffer so much? She was and is still an active church goer, she raised 5 children, was always there for them, was a great friend to my mom, etc, etc, and now, when she should be enjoying retirement with her husband, she's fighting for her life. Why? It doesn't make sense, and it probably never will. I'm sure some of you have questioned things like this before, so what are your opinions? What are your justifications for why these things happen? If you've experience something that seemed unfair to you or a loved one, how do explain why it happened to them? Maybe you can't, I suppose. Sorry for the rant, guys. Just not in the happiest mood after the news my mom gave me about this. Carry on.
Now i really don't know much. And this is NOT my topic to give advice. But, One of the defining moments of my life came last spring. My fire department got toned out for a mutual aid motor vehicle collision at around 6 in the morning. Long story short, my patient died, as a result of a head-on 70 mph collision with another vehicle. My patient was a neighbor, married father of 2, in his fifties, going to work in the morning. The car that hit him, was driven by a 22 year old drunk male, and he suffered minor injuries. Why? I honestly will never know. But it happened, and it will happen again. I do believe in God, i just question his methods sometime... Prayers sent MGH
Things like that really piss me off. One night of fun for the 22 year old ends the other persons life forever
I can't justify anything. But here's my take (the short version)- We live in a broken world. Someday, it won't be like this, but for now it is still broken. Evil is still out there, and still makes some pretty horrible things happen to all sorts of people. But God is good. He can take what was meant for evil and bring good things from it. The hard part for me with these questions used to deal with the "how can he let this happen" part. But the Lords Kingdom is a funny thing. Even Jesus had a hard time describing it (or rather, I had a hard time understanding him). When he talked of the Kingdom of God, where God always gets his way, he brought it up in 3 very different ways. Sometimes He talk about it as this thing that is coming, but it would be delayed. Sometimes He spoke of how it was "at hand" or would be crashing through at any minute. And still, sometimes He announced that it was here. The Kingdom was present in Jesus, so it was "here" with him. Someday, the Kingdom with be experienced fully, and the world will be fully under His control. But I believe that we are in this "inbetween time". A time where Jesus has had victory @ the Cross. A time when the Kingdom can break through in part at any given time (ie. miracles big and small, gifts of the Spirit, healing...). And a time when we still look forward to the full coming of the Kingdom. Matt, my prayer tonight is this: Heavenly Father, I pray that your Kingdom breaks through and turns these awful things around. I ask that you bring healing to this woman like only you can. Ease her pain and take away this cancer & infection. Lord I also ask that you would draw close & give strength to the friends and family of this woman, especially Matt who is part of my "online" hunting family. You are the great comforter Lord, help us to understand these troubling questions. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. First time I've ever prayed for anyone online. I'll repeat it here again, I just felt like I should type it out for some reason. I'm betting you are all glad i didn't go for the long version huh? Hang in there Matt! And keep us updated!
Matt, I too have had the same questions floating around In my head for sometime now. It pisses me off too. It's so frustrating to see good people go through this and watch the not so good people In this world live a long life. This really bothers me. Good stuff there Fitz!! I'll 2nd that.
The same questions you have, will be asked by every human at some point in life. The answer will always be in God's word. For one, none of us are yet immortal. We like to believe that we are invincible and indestructable, but that is not the case. The Word of God states that "it" rains on the Just and Unjust alike. No one is untouched by pain and suffering. Some endure different types. We are here for a reason, but this is not our home. Just always remember this, if you never remember anything else: No matter what happens, God will always be right. His ways are far above our ways, as is His wisdom and understanding. That is why we must have the faith of a little child when these questions arise. Hope and pray she gets better.
I certainly don't have concrete answers, none of us do. But I do have some thoughts on the subject and yes, I've asked this over the years time and time again. I believe that when bad things happen to good people, often times good things come from it. A couple weeks ago on Extreme Makeover Home Edition they built a house to help the familiy of Alex Brown. She was a young girl that had everything going for her in many ways, until she was killed when she crashed her truck on the way to school one morning because she was texting and driving. Now her family travels around with her truck on a flatbed trailer visiting other schools in TX and beyond educating students on the severity of texting while driving and they try to get every student to sign a pledge stating they won't do the same. Their thoughts are that if they can prevent just one person from texting and driving in the end it would save many others the grief of losing their loved one/ones. There was also a local young man (23 I believe) that got killed on his motorcycle this past summer. He was hit by a 16 year old girl that was texting and when left of center hitting him head on. So between these two bad things I would have to say it has affected many in a positive way. More info on Alex Brown below; http://www.rememberalexbrownfoundation.org/ Another example would be when a loved one dies of say lung cancer, I'd have to say that impacts their family members and quite possibly one of them could quit smoking because of it. Prayers Sent Matt!
I did happen to see that episode, you have some good points there, for sure. Fitz, thanks, bud, you and many on here have more scripture experience than me, and it certainly is nice to hear different perspectives on the issue. Thanks for the prayers everyone as well, it's always appreciated how supportive everyone here is.
So God in his infinite wisdom makes good people die so that his plan comes together at a certain point? So it is all part of "the plan"? I thought many religious folks say God created the world and gave us freedom of thought/action. If that is the case, then why would he kill a 50 year old father of two great kids, and allow a drunk 22 year old to live? Why would he allow some sick perverted psycho killer to hang women to an inch of their lives all the while torturing them, and then eventually killing them, to then allow that same individual to live by not allowing the death penalty in certain states? It does not make any sense unless you think God created the world yet does not have a hand in its day to day actions, or unless you do not believe in God. If you believe that God does have a hand in man's day to day activities, then him allowing the good people to die while saving the sick bastards makes no sense whatsoever. And if you believe that God does have a hand in life's day to day actions and he allows people to be tortured for years for example, then one must assume that God's "logic" in NO way shape or form mirrors that of mans..It can't so we should stop trying to think too hard about life because none of it makes any sense.
Only God has the answers unfortunately because I ask these same questions over and over. But I keep reminding myself of John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. He allowed his own Son to die for us all. Personally, I couldn't "let" my son or any of my children die for any reason.
His Son Jesus is alive and well in Heaven, correct? When he let his son die didn't he know that he would go to heaven?
There are no explainations, there are no reasons. Sometimes its just the random chaos of the universe. Sorry to hear about your mom's friend.
I thought we could move the debating part of this thread so we can keep the prayers coming un cluttered. http://forums.bowhunting.com/showthread.php?p=281167#post281167
I too stuggle and fight with this. I was teaching sunday school to some 5 and 6 year olds. And one boy asked me this tough question. I started sweating. But the answer came to me like a miracle. I said, "can you imagine a place where you feel no pain, you have no worries, your never hungry, or tired, and in the glory of God 24hours a day, where being there is better than having all the toys in the world". It occured to me that life is a small time compared to eternity. It really did my heart good, when the kids, smiled and said, "I want to go there".
I've seen some pretty bad things in my life. I've seen a lot of good people die in some very bad ways. I too have had about 40Plus years of asking "WHY" him or her. If you think about it, most of the bad we see was caused by man himself. Accidents are caused by people and occasionally equipment failures. Diseases are just something our frail bodies can have happen to them. Even after 40 years of asking these questions I'm no closer to an answer. I honestly have stopped asking the question. I'm not positive there's an all in one God. I firmly believe there is/are powers greater than me or us that we have no control over. Heck, even dumb luck plays a part in it all. I have experienced, what I call, 5 times when I could have or should have been dead. Twice people thought I had been killed. Yet, I'm still here to pester the world with my own little wit. In the end, all I try to do is be honest and honorable and a nice person for the most part. Is there a Heaven as people think... who knows? When your dead your dead and your life as you know it is gone. I was raised in a very religious home... but after 40 years of the questions, I hardly ever go near a church now. Does that make me a bad person? I don't think so. I always am willing to offer up prayers to powers higher than myself to help those suffering. Having seen it all I can relate to anyones plight and genuinely feel their pain. Prayers sent to your moms friend. Mine may not do any good or be worthy... but she has them. One frail body to another.
I will never forget the call I got from best friend 5 years ago. After a 5 year battle with Breast Cancer with his wife they just got the death sentece from her doctors. He ask me if God hated him, being what he has been through the last ten years it was hard to say no, in fact I never answered him. He lost his mother in freak car accident 10 years earlier, his Father a year later to a heart attacked. Now at age 44 he was going to lose his wife of 20 years and raise 3 boys alone. She died 4 months later, my best friend was alone. Flash forward 5 years to preseant day. Don got engaged to a wonderful women, a true blessing for him. At christmas dinner this year I leaned over and whispred in his ear. "To answer your question about God hating you, I believe he loves you very much, look who he brought into your life" He smiled and nodded. It's our darkest times in life we feel betrayed. Hang in there, life is full of highs and lows.
Good stuff Germ, I experienced God today. I also witnessed a similar story to yours less than a year ago.
