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| Question Answered: Part 1 | | Date Created: Jan 31, 2006, 12:09 AM |
I grew up going to the original Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa California. It was an awesome place, with many great people, and many good things happening. When I was 10 years old, my older sister died in a drunk driving accident. Actually, the situation was a bit more bitter than that - and it wasn't so much of an accident...
Anyway, to make a long story short, I started asking a lot of questions that no one had the answers to. Within a short time, I was asked to stop upsetting the other kids - and soon, I stopped going to church altogether...
It took me 23 years to come back to God. In the meantime, I studied every religion that there was a book for. I don't want to under-rate what I am saying here - I STUDIED. I read all the books, I tried everything that seemed logical, but in the end the Bible was the only source that is proven (and everytime someone tried to disprove it, they end up looking like fools)...
There were really two steps, and two events, which brought me back to God. I'm just gonna talk about the two steps here, and leave the two events for some other time...
Anyway, while going to SJSU to get my Masters Degree in Psych I started thinking some strange thoughts. The more I studied, the more these thoughts started to overwelm my thinking. The thought was simply this: "This is all BS. Let's just label this guy so we can deal with his label - not his issue." Remember, I had studied every religion I could get a book for by this time. My third sentence to the previous thought was, "the answer for all this crap is in the Bible."
This did not bring me back to God, but it did stop me from practicing Psych. I got my Degree and bailed on the whole thing - I could not be a party to a bunch of people who were aimlessly searching for answers in the wrong place...
The second thing that happened to me was meeting my wife. After we got married, her parents invited us to a home-study-group. I told her I would go, but the condition was that I had to read the Bible from cover to cover twice before going. I wanted to make sure I knew it well, cause if someone said something funky I wanted to know it. In the process of doing this, I came back. In the process of reading the Bible, studying the history of it, finding out that the more we find out the more data backs it up - I came back...
And, during this time, I was able to answer all the questions (save one) which plaqued me when I was a kid. I finally had answers to the questions burning inside of me for 20 years. I finally believed without a doubt...
But one question still burned in me, the answer came to me last night. I was just reading the Bible, and, all of a sudden, it was answered. I wasn't reading anything related to it, it just popped in my brain - like God said, "OK, you're finally ready for it, so here it is..."
The question, "If there is an all powerful and loving God, why does he allow so much evil in the world?"
The answer, "Because he would have to kill every human who ever lived! Every one of us has done something worth the wrath of God, and every one of us has allowed someone else to do the same. He loves us so much, that he lets us (all of us) live, and do as we choose. He doesn't 'allow evil', he allows 'people to be evil' because that is their choice, he allows 'people to allow evil' because that is our choice. In the end, we will reap what we sow - and that was his plan all along. Whether we do evil, allow it, or stop it - it is up to us - that is the choice he has given us..."
A lot of things became clear when I realized this last night. I realized that it was pure ignorance, and indifference, which kept me asking that question for the last 27 years. My main life maxim really came to me afterward, it goes: "The are three kinds of people in the world. Those who want things to happen, those who make things happen, and those who wonder what happened. Which are you?" God doesn't want us to play the victim, he wants us to make the right choice, and take an active part in that choice. Choice is destiny..
And for those of you on the sidelines. Not making a choice is a choice... |
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