Silly Rabbi, kicks are for Twidds

 Good morning,

I pray the day finds you well.

I am still catching up on all my pent-up thoughts from not talking with you for so long. I guess you will just have to put up with my ramblings.

When I was actively, and outwardly, (As I am still going through cancer, just, as we want to be politically correct, I am not cancer presenting) going through my cancer thing, people would often ask me, "How does this affect your relationship with God?" We have to remember that these people were truly concerned about me, and worried that having the big "C" would cause me to question or even lose my faith. 

My typical internal response was, "Silly Rabbi, kicks are for Twidds." 

I know I just left you in the dust and are wondering, "Just what the heck is that?" For a complete explanation you will have to ask my son David; he loves that joke. Just know that there is a Rabbi, a Troll, a group of Twidds, and a mountain involved.  

Sorry, did I mention that I am an internal processor; when I am forced to externally process it is a hot mess. 

Anyway...My external response was and is, "It doesn't, Me and God are still like peas and carrots." 

You see, I don't blame God for my cancer. He didn't give me cancer so He could then cure me to show how wonderful He is. Even saying this causes me to cringe. We have all known manipulative people and even had some in our lives. 

God doesn't manipulate, man does. 

In fact, people often ask me, when we get to talking about God, "Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? I can't believe in a God like that." 

I respond, "Neither can I." And I follow this with, “Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it.” and, because they think I have a bat-phone to God they say, “Well why don’t you ask Him?” 

I come back with, “Because I’m afraid He would ask me the same question.”

This is just me, you can disagree if you like; this is just us talking. 

God did not make carcinogens for us to take in (remember the, for us to take in part) whether intentionally or not, man did.   

So the whole, "I don't believe in God because bad things happen to good people" doesn't fly with me.

As Yuval Noah Harari wrote so well in his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind:

"Homo sapiens held the record among all organisms for driving the most plant and animal species to their extinctions. We have the dubious distinction of being the deadliest species in the annals of biology."[1]

If God wanted to stop bad things from happening to good people then He would have to take us all out, just sayin. 

So I am pondering the question, "Why do we allow poverty, suffering, and injustice when WE could do something about it? 

This is what I have been pondering lately.

Blessings,

Roger

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[1]Yuval Noah Harari, Yuval Noah. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. (New York: Harper Collins), 2015. 74. 

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