THIS is how Kyle and I feel about God and trials.
THIS is "our God".
It is Radio West's podcast with Rabbi Harold Kushner.
It is fabulous.
THIS is a God we can believe in and relate to and love.
One that believes in, and relates to, and loves us.
THIS is a God I can wrap my head around, and not want to run away from....screaming in disbelief.
THIS is how WE view "why bad things happen..." in our lives.
If you can't get this link to work, copy and paste in your
browser and LISTEN!
(Or GOOGLE "RADIO WEST" and "Rabbi Kushner"...I promise it's worth your time!)
It may not be quite "traditional" to the faith we've always known, or what that faith tradition has tried to teach us our whole lives, but we feel like maybe the good Rabbi is on to something.
It rings true to us.
It "feels" good in our hearts.
It soothes our soul and touches our spirits and makes
SO MUCH MORE sense than a God up in heaven "doling out really
bad things in people's lives".
We cannot imagine a "Father" like that.
We have felt like this for 21 years, since our first child was stillborn. And people would tell us a different version of why bad things happen and that God WAS a "dole things out so you learn something" kind of God. And that's how things worked. And try as we might, we could not wrap our heads around that.
We are parents too.
4 kids that we love a lot.
Like a lot, a lot.
And, as parents, we would NEVER "MAKE" a bad thing happen to our children.
But wait...
do bad things happen?
YES! All the time as a direct result of mortality and
living this thing we call life.
Natural consequences to our actions, or choices, or even
the choices of others that effect us.
And can we LEARN from the bad things that happen in our lives?
HEAVENS yes!!
We get to choose what we become as a result of those
bad things.
We get to choose if we will be better or worse for the wear
through our life experiences.
Imagine that?!
It's taken til now for us to find it perfectly articulated.
The Rabbi, he makes good sense to us.
God puts people here to act in His name. People to step in
and lift and strengthen when life hands us the hard stuff.
We've met (many) of those people so far on our journey.
They are golden!
Please listen. It's not so far off of what ANY of the people I know believe that you will be offended.
At least I hope not. It is not meant to offend.
You may like it.
You may learn something new.
You will at least understand how WE feel.
And that's what I've got for today.
LISTEN!
http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/why-book-job
Amen!!!!!
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