Listening to the news this week it has been hard to find anything really positive… in fact, I found myself weeping as I heard that Detective Senior Constable Damian Leeding had died, without regaining consciousness after being shot in the face in the line of duty.
We heard of the deaths of 2 more Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, and news continues regarding former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, now in custody, facing trial on genocide and war crimes charges after 16 years on the run. In recent weeks we have heard of unnecessary deaths because of the mad craze of “planking”, and horrific car accidents, caused by speed and alcohol.
And the question is asked, “Why doesn’t God do something?”
We want a loving benevolent God, who requires nothing of us. We want freedom to live our lives without rules and regulations… and then wonder why God doesn’t intervene, and why bad things keep happening.
We want our freedom, but we want God to stop the bad stuff.
In the 10 commandments we have a fairly simple set of rules to live by… which can be easily condensed into 2… “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
Unfortunately, our various freedoms compete and – where we cannot, or will not, compromise – conflict continues to arise, so that there has been a constant need to refine these commandments into a complex set of rules. Today, one person’s freedom to drink and drive conflicts with another person’s freedom to travel in safety! The books of Old Testament law did not arise because God is a “control freak” but because of our hardness of heart!
As our own children mature we give them freedom to live and grow and learn for themselves… rather than confine them or bind them to ourselves. In the same way, our heavenly Father loves us and has given us free will/choice … along with a world rich in all that is necessary for all of us to live well. The problem is not with God but with us!
Love and Blessings
Rev Shan