We have been getting plenty of teaches throughout the week, but just not really much to show for it. We've pretty much decided we need to not focus so much on talking to people on the street, without at the same time working with the ward here to find less active members or part member families to find people to teach. So that will be something we're going to try spending a bit more time on this week...I've set up an appointment with the bishop next Sunday to get his ideas and input on who we could visit. Hopefully we'll be able to find some interested investigators out of that.
Yesterday we were waiting at a subway station for our "T-bane" to take us to an appointment. To my left, there was a man kind of leaning on the wall staring at us with this goofy grin on his face. This went on for about 5 minutes. I glanced over at him probably about 7 times, just to let him know I saw him and his stare. Finally, I guess he got tired of this little game of cat-and-mouse and told me he had a question:
"Is God good?"
Yep, I believe He is.
"Is He All-mighty?"
Yup, I sure think so.
"Then, why are there so many suffering children and so many evil things in this world?"...he said this with a triumphant smile as if he had caught me, and I had never thought of this particular question before.
At that moment, our T-bane arrived, so I didn't have a chance to answer his question. As I walked away from him he shouted at me that I needed to think long and hard about the life-changing question he had just asked me. So I'll just answer it here =)
This answer comes in two parts:
1) To assume that just because God is good and all-powerful that He would force all people and all things in this world to always be good is foolish and denies everything we know through common sense and experience of what life is really like here.
and, 2) Beyond the fact that much of the evil in this world is a product of our own human stupidity and greed, the evil things that remain are not going to disappear with a clench of God's mighty fist....it just doesn't work that way.
I understand why this man didn't understand that. His conception of God is an Almighty Power in some corner of the universe who created all things and tells us lowly humans through His commandments written on stone tablets that unless we meet His mighty expectations, He's gonna let us burn in an endless @#!*% for all eternity. That certainly does not sound like a good God, yet that is the impression that many atheists get of the mass of misunderstanding of God and who He is in the world today.
God is an Almighty Power in some corner of the universe who created all things. But He is also our Father in Heaven. Just like our father here on Earth, he wants the best for us...meaning he wants us to learn and grow and become the person that we have the potential of being. He can see that potential in a way that we cannot, and sometimes, that means we have to go through trials and tribulations in this life. Our earthly parents cannot protect and shield us from any and all evil or hurt that could possibly cross our path, without stunting our growth and development. We learn through adversity. We know that. God knows that. So sometimes, yes, he allows us to suffer, because He has an understanding of the fact that it really will be for our good. We only have to look at the bigger picture that He is trying to give us.
The most important thing God has given us is our free agency. That means, for better or for worse, we can choose for ourselves what we want to do. If God came down to stop every murder, rape, robbery, accident, or burnt piece of toast, we would never learn the consequences of those evils...especially burnt toast.
The fact that evil exists in this world does not mean that God isn't there. It just means there is "opposition in all things" (2 Nephi 2:something). Evil in our lives works to highlight the good. We recognize the good things because of the evil, NOT in spite of it. For me, the existence of evil only strengthens the fact that there must be some source of good out there to combat it. Though the man in the subway station would like to focus only on the evil things in the world, he cannot overlook the fact that there are many good things which are out there as well....that has to come from somewhere right? It would be really inconsistent to say that the good things in this world are only a result of our own human efforts while at the same time saying that Evil is a result of God's negligence or inability to stop it.
I wish I would have had the opportunity to explain this to the man. But there will always be others =) I'm just glad I've been able to figure out for myself...well, it probably had to take some divine intervention for that one actually haha.
It's been cool serving with a long lost cousin. It seems like every week one of us gets an email explaining more about this or that relative. There's a lot about the Lillywhite side of my family that I just didn't know.
That's been my week folks! We're actually taking a normal working day today so that we can spend Wednesday visiting a bunch of museums in the Oslo area...all of the museums are closed on Mondays. So I'll have some good pictures to send back next week.
Have a good week!
Elder Sessions
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