Why?
It's been a week since the horrible shootings at Virginia Tech. A week filled with sadness, anger, and endless questions about why and how this could have happened.
In the last week, I have been unable to get the 32 people killed out of my mind. Most of those killed were around my age, just sitting in class, just like any other day. I can not even begin to imagine the horror they must have felt in the last moments of their lives. I can't imagine the amount of grief the friends and families of the victims are left with.
Which goes back to the endless questions. Why did this happen? I have endlessly been reading articles to try to make sense of what happened. But, I can't. I have read articles that have turned to God for a sense of comfort. But, I keep wondering, if there is a God, how could he allow stuff like this to happen?
A few years ago, I asked an acquaintance, who had recently become religious how God could allow such things as the Holocaust, September 11, or the countless other horrible things that have resulted in needless deaths throughout history, and continue to exist throughout the world? Her answer was that God created in people free will.
In the days following Virginia Tech, I asked my mom the same question. Yesterday, she sent me this article, which basically says the same thing that my friend said years ago.
What would be the answer to why God would allow something like the tsunami that killed 300,000 people? Or Hurricane Katrina? Or cancer? Or AIDS?
I probably should not be saying this, and I am sorry if I have offended anyone. But, I would really like some sort of explanation to my seemingly unanswerable question.
posted by Turtle Power at
1:46 PM
5 Comments:
Wow what an interesting article!
The article says:
"God loves us -- and to love somebody means letting that person be himself or herself. The name for that gift which He gave humankind so that we could be ourselves is free will. Without that freedom to choose, we would be no more than puppets acting out a script not of our choosing. God wanted more for us. So God gave us the free will that could make us greater than angels -- or more evil than Satan."
I believe God warns us all of danger. Are we in tuned enough to hear or do we purposely or unknowingly ignore the signs. I don't know I guess that's personal.
If you believe in God and believe the Bible to be true, you could read in the scripture that there was always a warning before a disaster or tragedy in the personal lives of the people in the stories, and that still is the case today. That intuition you get not to go down a certain street or to stay home and not go to work. Are warnings
As a Christian I, at times, have submitted to those intuitions and at other times have ignoreed the warnings only to regret it after and in retrospect I knew I was warned.But I chose to ignore because that was the gift God gave me to choose and you know he roots for us to choose the right way all the time.
I pesonally am glad for my free will otherwise I would be ...what .. a robot?
There were warnings before September 11th that could be read in the reports. There were warnings before Katrina that those Levees would not hold, but they were ignored. There were/are resources to help those in New Orleans but we are not procviding, once again, ignoring.
There was even a warning before VTech. The gunman showed signs of mental illness and at one point was advised by the school social worker to be evaluated but that was ignored and if I am not mistaken there was a 2 hour gap between the first round of shootings and the second.
You are not alone. the first thing I think to do when I hear about these things is to ask God, why?
I am glad that I have someone to ask. We make our choices. God provides a way ALWAYS.
Then you feel God is saddened. Then He touches the hearts of people to feel compassion and provide a source of comfort and strength to those in need.
After September 11th I saw God in all of those who helped, in rescue, in provisions, and in emotional support.
God says no
We say "Whatever."
He warns again
We make the choice to ignore
We suffer the consequences
We run to God
He is waiting to show us comfort
That's the way I see it .
Is God saying "I told you so!"
I don't think so actually I know that He would gloat about the consequences of our choices.
You raise a child and show them the way and warn them of dangers and hope for the best. Sometimes they heed your warnings and sometimes they don't. And we ask Why did you let that happen? When disaster comes. It is the way of the beast.
I hope this was helpful. It is a difficult question. Why? But I believe it's okay and natural to ask:)
I'm not offended
By
Maestra, at 4/23/2007 6:52 PM
Ms Dee- Thank you for providing such an in-depth response. I really wish I could believe in it. I appreciate seeing your point of view.
By
Turtle Power, at 4/23/2007 8:37 PM
amy, it's been on my mind a lot too. I've been glued to my computer screen soaking up all the articles from news sites. but really all we can do is have compassion.... or become lobbyist for gun control. I don't think "why" is a question that we personally need to answer. Tragedy occurs. Bad things happen to good people. Life is short. it's horrible and disguisting what took place, I'm not saying that it wasn't. But really I'm as lost and confused for an answer as you are (imagine that).... as is most of america.
"I probably should not be saying this, and I am sorry if I have offended anyone."
it's your blog, you can say whatever you want to say.... you don't have to apologize!!
By
Anonymous, at 4/23/2007 11:53 PM
A friend recently forwarded me the following. It's long but worth the read.
Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion's guest room. Instead the angels were given a small space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, "Things aren't always what they seem"
The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor,but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing what little food they had the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night's rest. When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field.
The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel how could you have let this happen? The first man had everything, yet you helped him, she accused. The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let the cow die. "Things aren't always what they seem," the older angel replied.
"When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn't find it." "Then last night as we slept in the farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave him the cow instead. Things aren't always what they seem."
I don't have the answers. I know free will allowed some very strong people to prevent one plane from reaching it's destination on 9/11. Instead, it crashed into an unpopulated field in PA and not an office building, school, or other densely populated place. Maybe God 'saved' the professor who survived the holocaust so he could be at the school last week allowing us to mourn the loss of 32 instead of 60 or 90 students.
By
Anonymous, at 4/24/2007 1:00 PM
As folks are sharing quotes, may I weigh in with one from Catch 22 (like the bible, its just a book, so don't take it too literally):
"...And don't tell me God works in mysterious ways,' Yossarian continued, hurtling on over her objection. 'There's nothing so mysterious about it. He's not working at all. He's playing. Or else He's forgotten all about us. That's the kind of God you people talk about - a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed. Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatological mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world did He ever create pain?'
'Pain?' Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife pounced upon the word victoriously. 'Pain is a useful symptom. Pain is a warning to us of bodily dangers.'
'And who created the dangers?' Yossarian demanded. He laughed caustically. 'Oh, He was really being charitable to us when He gave us pain! Why couldn't He have used a doorbell instead to notify us, or one of His celestial choirs? Or a system of blue-and-red neon tubes right in the middle of each person's forehead. Any jukebox manufacturer worth his salt could have done that. Why couldn't He?'
'People would certainly look silly walking around with red neon tubes in the middle of their foreheads.'
'They certainly look beautiful now writhing in agony or stupefied with morphine, don't they? What a colossal, immoral blunderer! When you consider the opportunity and power He had to really do a job, and then look at the stupid, ugly little mess He made of it instead, His sheer incompetence is almost staggering. It's obvious He never met a payroll. Why, no self-respecting businessman would hire a bungler like Him as even a shipping clerk!'....
...What the hell are you getting so upset about?' he asked her bewilderedly in a tone of contrite amusement. 'I thought you didn't believe in God.'
'I don't,' she sobbed, bursting violently into tears. 'But the God I don't believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God. He's not the mean and stupid God you make Him out to be.'
Yossarian laughed and turned her arms loose. 'Let's have a little more religious freedom between us,' he proposed obligingly. 'You don't believe in the God you want to, and I won't believe in the God I want to. Is that a deal?'"
By
Wisdom Weasel, at 4/24/2007 8:27 PM
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