Pastor's Corner

God’s different purposes

I was the chaplain at the hospital last week, and I met a woman of absolute faith. It was a beautiful thing to see in many ways. She had no doubts that everything was a part of God’s purpose and plans. That everything would always work out according to his will no matter what people did. She didn’t look for reasons, she accepted and believed.

I don’t have that kind of faith. My life, my experiences, my journey will not allow me to believe that way. I would not be able to accept a god who inflicts children with disabilities to test or punish adults. A god who inflicts natural disasters and accidents on innocent people in order to punish or test people or in order to protect them from a future we don’t understand.

I agree that everything happens for a reason. Sometimes that reason is people do stupid stuff and make bad choices. I cannot not blame God for bad things that result from free will, from natural disaster, or from simple biology. And so the doubts creep in on occasion, and I hear the voices of many skeptics say things like how could a loving god create a world with so much pain and suffering, where children are born disabled or only to die, where so many bad things happen to decent people, where earthquakes, flood, famine, fire, hurricanes and the like happen.

There is a difference between doubt and skepticism though. I do not have doubts that cause me to turn away from God, anymore... I had those when I was 20, and even then I turned away from the church, not from God. Skeptics seek justification for their doubt, in my opinion. I do the opposite.

That’s where my faith kicks in once again. God created the earth and everything on it and declared it to be good. The earth is a living being that grows and changes and we humans sometimes get in the way, the same way bugs get in our way. Life includes bacteria, viruses, microorganisms, etc., some of which are harmful to us, but that does not make them evil. Most of them are necessary or benign to our existence.

Life includes choices made by ourselves and others, some good some bad, which can result in bad things happening to innocent people no matter what our intentions were, but that does not make most people evil. My faith grows when I remember that all things work together for good for those who trust in God.

My faith is my trust that no matter what happens, no matter how bad or sad, someone, somewhere will gain something holy from it, whether it is the opportunity to help one’s neighbor, the chance to grow spiritually, the chance to spread a new message of responsibility and/or hope coming from personal experience, the chance to learn how not to do something in the future.

My faith, my trust, in God comes into tension with my doubts on a daily basis, and as a result I seek God constantly. This is my path; it may not be yours. Without those doubts brought up by my life and the life I see around me, perhaps I would not grow in faith because there would be nothing to challenge it.

Not all of us need or have the same spiritual experiences or journey because God has different purposes for us and our lives, and we have made different choices, some good, some bad, that have led each one of us to where we are in this moment.

And so I go on seeking but not often seeing God’s hand, purpose, or the good that will come out of what happens to me and in the world around me. And yet my trust in God, my faith abounds because I believe in God with all my doubts.

Rev. Jeanette Solimine,

Colfax