How to hold onto God while the world is passing away

TO HAVE FAITH IS TO REVEAL WHAT IS CONCEALED - Abraham Heschel

I was reading in Scripture Paul's argument in First Corinthians chapter seven that the "time is short" (v.29) and this world is "passing away" (v.31). There is an urgency here wherre God's word calls us not to be concerned with the cares of the world but to be caught up in the Spirit. If we live this way, it challenges all our concerns for the economy and politics. It challenges our negativity and grumbling whereas we are to be thankful no matter what the circumstances we face. As I read this section of scripture, three truths struck me in how to live for God above the cares of the world.

1. Be content with what you have (all the buying and possesing in the end will not last)

2. Be satisfied that you belong to God (most of our disatisfaction comes from focusing on the wrong things and letting the flesh cause us more trouble rather than possesing a disciplined life before God)

3. Be free from worry knowing that God holds your future (fretting, anxiety, and worry does not produce the righteousness of God).

Wounded Theism and God's Disappearance

"CREATION WAS NOT PREOCCUPIED WITH COUNTING, BUT WITH LOVING, AND THE PRECISION OF LOVE IS NOT THE SAME AS THE PRECISION OF MATHEMATICS" - Carlos Carretto


When atheists rail against God for the injustices of the world and Christians try to defend God with all the bad things they see happening in the world, this is called "theodicy." Most theodicies fall short of truly defending God because people asking questions are coming from different places and need different answers. Human free will may be a good arguement for why bad things happen today, particularly by other people, but it does not adequately explain the pain of a child dying from a rare disease or losing a family in a hurricane. Different situations call for different responses.

I have been reading Dinesh D'Souza's thought provoking book "God Forsaken." Is that you? Do you feel betrayed or forsaken by God? Dinesh comes with a fresh perspective because he has his feet in two worlds. He tries to deal with both the spiritual side and natural side of things but he also deals with them as a person from India who now lives in America. I often find people who inhabit two worlds are deeper theologically and more balanced in making cultural observations.

Some of the most vocal atheists are really angry theists. They are mad or ticked off at God and they are fierce in their focus and attacks on God. Why don't God show himself more? Why did he create a world with so much suffering and pain? If this is the best possible world God can do, I don't want anything to do with God! D'souza makes an interesting argument that for life to exist on earth, we have to have what we see today? Earthquakes and hurricanes happen because of shifting plates for our world to sustain life. Disease and sickness happen because there is an abundance of life trying to survive on this planet. We might as well curse the sun as we curse tsunamis.

Is it also possible that some of our feelings of Godforsakeness is not that God has forsaken us but possibly we have forsaken God? And despite the dangers and tests of this planet, what about its wonders and beauty? What about the times when we walk on this planet and feel like we are both one with nature and one with God? D'Souza points out that God's hiddeness is a form of judgment upon us but I want to go deeper. Is not God's disappearance when we don't sense God's presence and know God's absence, is this not another test to draw us closer to Him? What kind of children would we be if God had to hold our hands every moment? God may of walked with Adam and Eve in the garden but it was when he walked away one day that Adam and Eve both decided to turn their backs on God. We like Israel may feel like we are abandoned and in exile from God. But like Israel, God's love and truth is always pursuing us. God is even portrayed as a wounded lover in the Bible but let us never forget that God's presence and love is always there for us whether we feel it at the moment or not. Without God's love, we truly are Godforsaken.