Since I broke my wrist a month ago our household appliances are suffering a wave of sympathetic malfunctions. Our dishwasher has now been out for over two weeks. Our hot water heater sprung a leak last weekend and we just had a new one installed this morning. One of the two heating elements in the stove stopped working; the repair man for that is coming on Monday. We also had a guy in today to look at the DSL which has been slow. This on top of a couple of household accidents directly attributable to my being handicapped and clumsy and attempting to do stuff I shouldn't have been doing.
It makes one wonder whether the universe is trying to tell us something. But the answer is no. The universe (code for God) doesn't arrange the world in order to teach us specific lessons. I don't believe God has that power, and theologically a loving God would find a way for us to learn what we needed to learn without inflicting pain and suffering. That doesn't mean there's nothing to learn by paying attention to what's happening around us but the lessons are what we draw out of our experiences and observations, not something embedded in them.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Personal life experience is the foundation of spirituality. It's all about what you notice, what you think and feel, what inspires you, what moves you. Here's what's going on in my spiritual life.
About Rev. Ricky
- Rick Hoyt-McDaniels
- Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Rick Hoyt-McDaniels is a Unitarian Universalist minister, serving a congregation in Los Angeles.
Posts
3 comments:
"The universe (code for God) doesn't arrange the world in order to teach us specific lessons."
I would have to respectfully disagree Rev. Ricky. Beyond , but not necessarily above the carefully arranged "lesson" that I linked to, surely you can understand that the careful arrangement of meaningful "coincidences" known as synchronicity often teaches us specific lessons.
I don't believe God has the power to interrupt the flow of natural causes and effects. That belief (in God's omnipotence) leads to the problem of evil (If God has power over everything God either creates evil or allows it to happen - both of which contradict the much more important belief of God's omni-love). I notice synchronocities. But they speak to me because I interpret the signs to create a message, not because God set up the circumstances to send me a message.
Of course you're welcome to disagree. But you do then have to find a response to the problem of evil.
You have already provided the only rational response in your comment above Rev. Ricky. You just don't want to believe it.
God most certainly allows what we call evil and, whether one reads the Bible or simply *reads* God's Creation, one can readily see that God created, if not creates, much if not most of what we call evil. Insurance companies don't call natural disasters "Acts of God" for nothing. . . I am not saying that God willfully inflicts "Acts of God" on people to punish them, as told in the Bible, but God most certainly created the conditions for "Acts of God" and, not only allows them to occur by not interrupting the flow of natural causes and effects, but rarely if ever gives human beings advance warning of them that might give people the chance to protect themselves. C'est la vie. . .
Post a Comment