more cat pictures
We’ve had heavy rain the last two days, which has meant much grumpiness from the feline members of my household, especially Lucy, who thinks of herself as a bit too precious for discomfort.
But I hadn’t realised until this morning that Lucy gives every indication of seeing me as God. Really!
The rain was falling and she needed to go out. She refused to use the cat flap and stared imperiously at me to open the door. So far so normal. But when the door was open, she turned to me imploringly. Would I please stop the rain. Well of course nothing happened. Still she sat, and did everything except tug at my trouser leg and jerk her head towards the sky to get her point across. When I explained I could not actually stop the rain she made a dash for the rosemary bush, wiggled her bottom under it, did her business and rushed back in, getting as few drops as possible on her beautiful grey fur.
She looked at me in disdain, and I swear she was thinking “well what good is God if she can’t stop the rain?”.
Which brings me to the point of this post.
As soon as people know I’m Christian, they start questioning my belief in God along the lines of “Well what good is God? Terrible things happen all the time – look at China, look at Burma. People pray for their loved ones to recover. Nothing happens. What good is God?”
It’s a very difficult question. Do we believe in the all-powerful God of the Old Testament? The God who often appeared to use people like chess pieces, punishing capriciously, saving some and not others, sending terrible plagues upon an entire people?
In our age, we (mostly) prefer to believe in a gentle, loving, creative God. But if God is not all-powerful, can’t fix bad things, where does that leave us? What is the point of God?
Mostly I get this question from people who don’t really want to listen to any answer, let along a long answer, they’re just trying to register their disgust at my irrationality. So I’ve been trying to figure out an ‘elevator pitch‘ response, as a wedge to open the door to dialogue.
Trouble is, I’m nowhere near nailing it yet, so let me ask you to help: what good is God?
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OK, first of all, that cat story is HILARIOUS. Second, this is precisely the question I’m working on in my theology paper (aside: VERY LAST PAPER FOR SEMINARY!!! WHOOHOO!!!). What I think is that God refuses domination over us…hence free will and tornadoes and whatever. God’s love made manifest in refusing to dominate us. God still is at work, though, through the Spirit constantly cajoling us that we can do OH so much better than this.
Mmm. Can I just turn in this comment instead of my paper???
Wouldn’t it be great if theology papers could just be witty comment length? But just think, soon you’ll be putting on that graduation gown and you can start being silly again!
Loved the cat story, too. Lucy seems to have taught you well.
If God came in to “fix” everything at our bidding, then what incentive is there for us to grow? Instead God companions us in our joys and our sorrows so we never feel alone in the face of great or small tragedies.
That’s the best I can do just now.
I think about your question all the time, in one way or the other. Today I was thinking about a wise comment I heard about the “use” of spouses: they bear witness to our lives. God does that even better. Where would we be without the belief that someone knows and loves us unconditionally and will somehow make things turn out right? (Or patiently wait until we figure it out?)
Tess, I wonder if it’s a challenging question because of the assumptions we make about how God “ought” to be. For example, if we think that God should be as, clearly, Lucy thinks you should be (lovely story, by the way), then we will be trapped into blaming God for everything that goes wrong in our lives. I’m sure God transcends whatever we may think of Him/Her. Our big challenge is to learn whatever lessons God intends us to learn – and one lesson is that “God doeth whatsoever He willeth”.
Of course, this is not in any way to diminish the terrible suffering of human beings in so many situations around the world – either because of natural disasters or as a result of human wickedness. When we respond compassionately to the suffering of others, we can find the meaning that is so often deeply hidden in tragedy (as Viktor Frankl learned from his experiences in Nazi death camps).
I agree with Barbara, and Wren!
I also agree with towanda – the free will question is central here. Without the urge within ourselves to do better and be better, we can never be deserving of the presence!
God’s good for giving us strength and determination. For giving us a mark to aim for. For reminding us that there are others out there, when we feel minded to consider only ourselves.
As the paramount (some might say) species on this planet, humans need to know there’s someone greater than ourselves – this causes us to feel respect, which causes us in turn to look to keep our own houses in order.
And let’s not forget the very basic premonition that, without God, we wouldn’t even be here to sit around and ponder the question.
I think we forget that, without God, we’d have never even taken that first breath. The entire experience of life – and love – we owe it ALL to His good grace. So some of it blows now and then. We so easily forget that there’s an awful lot of it that sends us rejoicing into the streets to praise His holy name.
Yet, when was the last time we asked, “What good is life without God?”
(You got me going this time Tess!)
Dear Tess,
I feel your pain on this one and you really have no idea, I think, how much I wish I could could fix the questions and the answers. Of course, once upona tim I DID have all the answers (all the “religious” answers) and rattled them off readily. But since that life has come to bankruptcy for me, I do not have an answer to the question of “What good is God?” None.
I do know, however, that I cannot bring myself to conceive of a world of complete randomness without any ultimate meaning and without any intelligence behind it. And perhaps therein, lies the only good of God left to me.
I could write much more, but that’s probably more than enough for a comment.
Take care, my friend,
Hudson
P.S. I meant to say also that I love your cat story about Lucy, and I love that pic!
Such great comments!
Towanda: yes, I like this image of the spirit cajoling.
Barbara and Wren: I got from both of your comments the sense of resting, companionship and witness. They used that quote about ‘witness to our lives’ in the film Shall We Dance (American version) which I thought was a really interesting exploration of marriage as well as a great feel-good movie.
Barney: being quiet and reflective enough to hear those lessons we must learn is an art isn’t it? And I just read a bit about Viktor Frankl, whose story I wasn’t familiar with. Thank you for that reference.
Jules: gratitude – yes, yes and yes! And see the comment I left on your post.
Hudson: I know you don’t feel it at the moment, and your current experience is painful, but I suspect you will find an answer and that the blessing of having been able to let go of a succession of beliefs has left space for something important. You will know what in time.
And yes, the pic – I confess that I Can Has Cheezburger is the very first blog I look at each morning!
hi tess–i, too, love the lucy story (of course!) it reminds me of my old dog, curry, who stares at me the same way when it’s raining outside, but then often turns back into the house as if to say, “i think i’ll wait.”
and there is my theme again of waiting. maybe i am waiting for the answers from God, about God…all i know is that i seem to have many more questions than answers these days and it feels like a pretty good place to be. i remember when i did have my “elevator pitch” about God and it embarrasses me now to even think of it. what good is God? i really connect with the bearing witness, unconditional love, companion, relationship aspect. i can’t get on board any more to a puppeteer who pulls strings…and i think free will has a lot to do with how and why things happen in the world. more pondering required on this one for sure!
great post!!!
Thanks Lucy, thoughtful as always.
Although I was raised a Charismatic Christian, had my ‘born again’ time, went to Bible College and worked as a Christian worker for some time, I am no longer Christian. I now consider myself a Pagan Hedge Witch. I have a deep and real relationship with Deity and connect with what I know and understand as the One Divine Life revealed to me through nature. As I am part of Nature, I consider myself part of the One Divine Life.
If someone asked me ‘what good is God?’ I would respond along the lines of ‘should God be good?’ Whilst I have a relationship with Deity and I know my Goddess and God, I don’t feel that they exist simply to make my life better. Sure, they intervene, they support my personal and spiritual progress, but they don’t exist to serve me. Deity Is. I find it as simple as that.
Andy, thank you. Exactly – the perception that Deity is there to serve us leads to much bitterness.
One of the things I like about Paganism (however individuals define themselves within it) is the femininity inherent in Deity(ies). No matter how much one avoids putting a pronoun in front of the word God, the Judeo-Christian concept is still masculine.
I like your phrase One Divine Life.
Peace Tess,
An interesting question and an interesting discussion. When I say your question to myself (‘what good is God?’) it sounds as though God is/or should be seen as, some kind of crutch – rather like, ‘what good is the toaster?’ or ‘what good is the rail network?’ I have found myself thinking about God in this way in the past, as a thing to serve me. Perhaps the question should be: ‘what good am I?’
Abdur Rahman
Peace Abdur, and thank you for your comment. (What good is the rail network indeed, I sometimes wonder…
) Your rephrasing of the question made me think about these natural and man-made disasters that are held up as proof of the non-existence of God. In fact, you only have to look at the human kindness and bravery that always shows itself when something terrible happens to see the reflection of God in us.
God is that which is in all of us, to give us courage to be co-creators. That is, to make the world a better place. It’s about the inspiration and faith to work toward moving mountains, not about expecting to be on the receiving end without giving. As we identify with God and the example of Christ, we see God “grow up” within ourselves and others. We get a better glimpse through the glass darkly. Ironically, by expecting less for ourselves, we end up getting more.
I am not Christian, but rather consider myself to be an Omnitheistic Pagan. I believe that all religions are equally valid, but I choose to worship “God” as a woman, and therefore add the “Pagan” part to my Omnitheistic views. However, because *you* identify with Christianity, I will try to frame my response within that belief system, and will refer to God as “He”. This is your online home, and I’m hoping to be a respectful guest here
Like others have posted, I believe that the answer lies in God’s grace to give us free will. I believe that we are put on this Earth to experience the physical world in a way that God never could-as limited physical beings. We are also here to learn, grow, and evolve into better human beings. In order for us to do that honestly and effectively, God had to remove Himself from the equation…meaning that He had to give us the freedom to choose “good” or “evil” for ourselves. If He were to intervene whenever someone chooses “evil”, then we wouldn’t really be free to choose “good”. I think most of the “evil” in the world is a result of humans choosing fear over love. They react out of fear, which causes most of the pain and suffering we see in the world around us. Since the bible tells us that “God is Love”, whenever we choose fear, which is the opposite of love, we choose to turn our backs against God.
This leaves the questions of disease, disability, and natural disasters…but I don’t have any good answers for those problems. Perhaps they are ways to help us grow into better human beings through compassion, love, and humility, but I am not sure. Your thoughts?
Jay, hello, and welcome to this blog. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.
I agree with what you say about free will and choice. We cannot fulfil our full wonderful potential as human beings if we are being controlled by what I’ve somewhere heard referred to as a “watchmaker God”. And fear – yes, fear feeds hatred and greed, which is the root of our wars.
The questions of disease etc are of course much more difficult. Similarly, I don’t believe they are directly caused by God. (“Hmmm, I’m a bit bored today, perhaps a quick cyclone over East Asia…”
) But again we have choice in how we react. Over and over we see ordinary heroism – which is actually extraordinary – as strangers fight to save each other’s lives in floods or whatever. Sadly the reverse can be true, as we see with looting in hard-hit areas. And the courage of someone dying in pain can be inspiring.
Incidentally, I really appreciate your respectful language, although actually I don’t think of God as male and try not to refer to God as gendered. It isn’t easy, as “he” has become such a shorthand, and of course is used constantly in liturgical language. And it can make for clumsy expression of language, as in my sentence above.
Finally thank you for the word Omnitheism which I had not heard before. I had to look it up and understand it to mean the belief that every faith contains a grain of the same truth and belief in ultimately the same God. I can absolutely sign up for that!
Hi Tess,
Yeah, I really like omnitheism, too. I think it’s a great “ism”
I believe that wisdom can be found in all religions and all spiritual paths, and that no race or culture has a monopoly on Love, or God. As you said, every faith contains a grain of the same truth. One of my favorite sayings is: “We are all children of the same Universe.” To me, that signifies that we should study all relgious paths, and try to learn from them, even if we don’t necessarily believe what we read.
I’m a huge supporter of interfaith dialogue, and omnitheism helps me see things from several different points of view. I think that so much of “man’s inhumanity towards man” could be ended if the separate parties made an honest attempt to understand each other’s faith.
Jay, absolutely right. I tend to go on about this a lot, but I think fear is the root of so much hatred and we can’t truly listen to others if we’re fearful.
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