The biggest challenge to my faith is the seeming randomness of everything.

Some are born into the lap of luxury while others are born into unspeakable misery. Wonderful people suffer unbelievable tragedy, while complete monsters live the life of Riley. King David also had these though when he would pen, "Why do the wicked prosper while the righteous perish.? " These things do no destroy my faith, and it is an age old question. I'm just saying it's the one thing that I haven't had a totally satisfactory answer about. Perhaps bloated skeleton in the horn of Africa goes to such bliss, that his or her afterlife is actually worth the suffering and misery they experience on earth.

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curiosi · 61-69, F

I've tried to make sense of it. For a long time I told myself that the pain purifies us and those that don't suffer remain angry toddlers all their life. The pain just intensifies and is seemingly never ending. My faith is in question these days as well.

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

@curiosi I wonder how many people we believe to have lived a charmed life from the time they were born till they died actually have had serious problems and struggles and just kept them well-hidden.

curiosi · 61-69, F

@cherokeepatti I have family members who live charmed lives. They refuse to suffer. They project, deny etc. My aunt completely destroyed her son's life because she wanted to be "taken care of". He ended up taking his own life. She shrugged it off and moved on to the other son.

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

@curiosi Your aunt sounds like a narcissist. But they are not happy people. They might have a lot of things & money but happiness is not what they have.

Frank52 · 70-79, M

Age old questions. I remember seeing TV news footage many years ago of the Ethiopian famine where an emaciated mother with her empty breasts, clutched her baby and cried out in a weak voice, 'Jesus, help me!' over and over. I still have tears as I think about that image.

As one of those who 'prosper' in a material sense (I lack no essential thing and have many non-essentials) I suppose the thing I have to ask before God is: What is my responsibility in handling my comparative wealth so that others don't suffer? I am not God and am not responsible for the whole world, but only those things he has given into my stewardship. The rest I have to leave to others for their conscience.

As for the 'monsters', I'm with David. The great thing about the Psalms is that they show the whole gamut of human emotion. A lot of modern church 'worship' is about feeling good, confident in the fact of God's goodness and being upbeat. That is important. But so is not denying the real world challenges of poverty, injustice and plain evil which blights our world. I want to know why my friend died on Monday with COVID when he did so much good. I am not angry, but I'm not going to pretend I can be happy. I need to express that to God as well.

The answer I have come to is that this side of Glory there will be many things that confuse and defeat our thinking. We do what we can where we are in prayerful submission. In Gory, to be honest, I doubt it will matter.

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

Something that makes you think is how someone who was born with little or nothing grows up to create a successful and prosperous life, their struggles seemed to have made them stronger & more motivated to overcome their adversities. And some of those who were born with a golden spoon in their mouth take what they have inherited without working for their wealth and fame piss everything away before they reach middle age. It makes me think that there are other ways to measure wealth than just money.

Budwick · 70-79, M

@cherokeepatti [quote]It makes me think that there are other ways to measure wealth than just money.[/quote]

I think you are on to something there!

TheRascallyOne · 31-35, M

You shouldn't worry too much about bodies human its the soul that lives forever

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

@TheRascallyOne truth

puck61

@TheRascallyOne It's the spirit that lives forever, in my opinion, of course. The soul is corruptible whereas the spirit is incorruptible. At least that is the doctrine I ended up favoring most. However under spiritual awaking the soul becomes beneficial to the body and spirit, and the threefold nature of my sould aligns with the threefold nature of God.
I see the soul as being the realm of passion, and creativity, and there are things we can do to damage it. Like I said though, that does not necessarily make another doctrine less valid.

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