the problem of evil

One of the biggest questions we come up against, when we're talking with friends about faith, is the problem of evil in our world.  This is fresh in my mind, of course, because of all the violence that we've seen in the last week.  Only today there was another murder-suicide right down the road from me.  How on earth can we even hope to answer people's questions about this?

The first thing I think we have to understand is that there are different kinds of questions.  The first type is a more rational or intellectual question - can a good God allow evil?  Does God create evil?  If evil exists, does that logically mean that God must have intended for it to be here?  And these questions could use a logical response.  I could give someone information, point him to an apologist, talk for hours about the philosophical options we have to understand evil.

But there are other questions.  There are questions that come more from our emotional response to the evil and pain in the world.  How could such horrible things happen?  How could God let them happen?  How can I trust a God would would allow them to happen?  How could I love a God who would allow them to happen?  And these require entirely different responses.  An intellectual or logical response is never going to be enough.  But this is often how we handle it.  In the wake of the most recent school shooting, I've seen lots of theological responses.  I've seen people giving a whole history of sin and calling this evil a natural consequence.  But those responses don't go to the heart of the matter.  They don't really reach the heart at all.

And at the heart of the emotional question are 2 really important questions.  The first is who is this God you're talking about, really?  What kind of God is he?  What is his character?  What are his values?  Is he worth knowing?  The second is related to my own ability to trust that God.  Can I personally choose to trust him?  Would I even want to?  And Christians definitely have a role to play in helping people find answers to these questions.

Once I have taken the time to listen to someone's heart and their questions, then I have opportunities going forward.  I can share with them my struggle with those same questions about God, and how I made my way through them.  I can challenge their perceptions of God by sharing who I know God to be, and share lots of examples of why I think God is actually not that way.  I can introduce them to Jesus, and invite them (and model for them) how to take those questions to God.  I always want to be encouraging or inviting people into relationship with God.  Even if that relationship is based on questions and frustrations, that's better than leaving the questions in the abstract.  A question of trust or of character can only really be addressed within a relationship.

Have you or your friends had these types of questions this week?  Were they primarily intellectual questions, or emotional questions?  How did you dialogue about them?  If someone were to ask you a question about evil in the world, how would you respond?

Telling your story

Let's say you were sitting at a table with a sort of acquaintance after lunch.  As you're preparing yourself to leave, she says to you, "So you're a person of faith.  How did you get to be that way?"  What would you say?

This happened to me recently.  I was out to lunch with a person I know from work.  We'd get together for lunch maybe 3-4 times a year.  Our previous lunches consisted mostly of conversation about law and teaching and all the other things we have in common.  So the question about my faith caught me off guard.  I struggled to remember a specific time I'd said something about God or my beliefs to her, and I couldn't.  But somehow, she knew that it was important to me.  And I think I spent another 30-40 minutes sharing my story with her.  What an awesome opportunity!

This might happen to me only a couple of times a year--where I've got a specific invitation to share my life story as it relates to faith.  But I've given a lot of thought to how I would want to share it when the time comes.  I've taken the time, ahead of time, to think about the highs and lows of life and how to weave in God's actions and activity in to where my life has come from and where it's going.  Because I always want to be ready with an answer about the hope and faith I have inside.

Whenever we're living kingdom values in our everyday lives, truly allowing Jesus to lead us as we go,  questions like this come up.   So what about you?  Are you ready to share your story if and when you're asked?  What are the major ways that God has intervened in your life?  Why is faith important to you?  How does it affect your life?