Quote:
It is remarkable to me that you find faith in your wife's situation which to me would serve as sufficient argument against the existence of God, or at least a God that cares about me. I find it hard to reconcile the viewpoint that the good things in life prove out the existence of God, but the bad things don't decrease the likelihood of his existence.
Of all of the assertions against faith, this is probably the strongest. There are really to ways to deal with the issue, one theological and one more emotional. The theological answer tells us that because of our sin, we have chosen to live in a world where there is suffering. If humanity as a race chose God over sin, then there would be no death, sickness, poverty, etc. Adam chose sin in the garden and so humanity fell (as did creation), and we have followed in his footsteps. For the Christian, the hope is that one day creation will be restored to a pure state and we will be made free of sickness, death, and sin.

The theological answer is kind of cold, though, and while I believe it, it is hard to gain real, personal comfort from that. The emotional answer has a lot more power for those who suffer, at least for Christians. I don’t know if it is unique to Christianity, but one of the defining characteristics is that God came to earth and met us in our pain, allowing Himself to suffer one of the most gruesome physical deaths a person can experience. On top of that, He bore the spiritual and emotional penalty of humanities sins. So while it might be difficult to make sense of pain and suffering emotionally, we know that we worship a God who has not sat above and watched from a distance- He has come near and experienced the same suffering that we have. The great symbol of Christianity is the cross, which reminds us that God does not tell us to try and ignore suffering, but to endure it for a greater cause.

I’ll admit that it has not been easy for either Angel or I through this. Yet the more physical pain she’s experienced (and the more emotional pain we’ve both experienced), it has driven home to us that the only hope we really have is in Christ and that one day all will be restored. We know there is purpose in all of this, and so we struggle on even when it hurts, but always coming out stronger than when we began.

You may recall that we ended up naming our band “Steady On”, and now you know why. Most of our songs are written from the perspective of our personal struggles and how God has revealed himself to us through them. We seek to use our music to encourage other believers to walk consistently even during trials and failures. I can personally attest that I have felt and known God more closely in the painful moments than I have in the joyful ones.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.