My first two years in youth ministry made me feel helpless. I felt helpless to touch the pain of people who were struggling, unable to help people with struggles that were outside of my experience. I could rifle off Bible verses to them, but for those of you who have tried this, you know the result. So I decided to go to grad school to get a masters in counseling (mind you, my intention was never to become a professional counselor, but rather to be able to help people who I encounter throughout my ministry and in every area of my life. I must say that Trinity (my school) has been an AWESOME experience and I've learned so much from it. I've learned about myself, others, and hopefully how to help people.
However, I'm pretty convinced that no matter how much training you get, there will always be people who will be able to make you feel helpless. This weekend, I met one. I had the opportunity to go speak at a youth retreat for a church in my hometown in PA (ironically not the church I went to). After one of the sessions, a girl came to talk to me. Through many tears and painful cries, she explained that her parents had died when she was young and that she couldn't even remember their voices. Her brother, only a year and a half older, had walked out of her life and doesn't communicate with her any more. "How can I trust in a God who has taken so much from me? If God is loving, why did this happen? I don't have anyone to look up to and whenever I trust someone, they let me down."
My teachers at Trinity would be proud of me for not giving any of the pat answers that this girl has probably heard before, that someday it would all make sense and God has a plan. What do people mean by that anyways? That her parents dying was planned by God? That He wanted it to happen? That God directly plans every action and decision that's made. This is the only logical conclusion if this were part of God's plan. God's plan is to redeem an elect group of people through His Son and to create a new earth for His people. Are all the details planned as well? I don't think so, but I'm open to hearing comments from others, as this is an issue I think about a lot. I don't think that God's foreknowledge of all that will happen includes his predestination of all events.
I am communicating with this girl through email and helping her to struggle through her feelings of anger and doubt toward God. If you've got any wisdom, comment...
2 comments:
I think you should look up the word "plans" in Strong's Concordance or whatever Bible program you might have for the particular verse that God has plans to prosper us and not to harm us. I don't have access to those things....what did the original term really mean? Did it possibly mean goals? As you were implying, it certainly did not mean he already had planned out how our life would go and if you took a misstep or were about to, he would prevent certain things from happening or gently guide you back onto his path. I always liked the verbal picture that God's omniscience was like Him standing on a mountain top and being able to see everything at the same time happening, past/present/future, as opposed to the way that I think most people view God as having been at each separate point in the past and being able to stop things that were happening or being able to warn of things in the future. We have a hard time understanding that God can be in all tenses and that He is not bound by present tense as we are. This doesn't probably help much but maybe it will get your ball rolling to help you figure out more for yourself.
You know I couldn't resist this one :)
To put it quite simply, if the word "free" in "free will" is to have any meaning whatsoever, then it must be the case that it (the will) is not controlled from without. In other words, God is not to blame because God could not have made it happen.
-G
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