In class a few days ago, a professor of mine was acknowledging how the month of April has been filled with some fairly significant tragic events (this was in light of the tragedy at the Boston Marathon yesterday). She listed a few events - I recalled that the shooting at Columbine high school had also happened this month. Looking back on this year, even, there have been innumerable and unbearable tragedies - the shootings in Newtown, the shootings at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin, and many others.
When these things have happened in the past year, or past few years, our fingers are quick to fly to the keypads/keyboards of our phones and computers and share with the world our sorrows for the tragedies and to let others know that we are praying for the victims and the entire situation. I sincerely think that is great that we are sharing in that way. I hope that we are all matching our Facebook statuses and tweets with conversations with God through prayer. It doesn't matter who we tell that we are praying, it matters that we are active prayers to the God who can answer them.
I don't know a lot about the events in Boston yesterday, besides the few details I've gleaned from the news. I do know this: God's heart broke. He is hurting for us and with us.
I'm going to step aside from Boston for a moment, but I will come back later.
I think along with grace, love, mercy, and the many other things that God gives us, free will is equally as astounding and amazing. God giving us free will was an amazing act of love. An existence without free will is to live as a machine, to be a captive. We would not love God and have a relationship with Him because we chose to submit our hearts to that, we would have those things because it was our only choice. And that is not love.
Free will was first exercised in Eden. Eve took the apple from the tree she was not supposed to touch. Although she is separated from us by thousands of years, I think men and women both can resonate with Eve. We see something immediately gratifying, extremely attractive and we grab it. I believe that is when our flesh became finite and ephemeral - when Eve took the apple. In that moment Eve made a decision,while God's love remained unchanged.
When tragic things like Newtown and the Boston Marathon happen, we focus on the bad aspects of free will. It makes sense to do so. Free will was something given to us that we can do terrible things with. As the giver of free will, we are quick to blame God for these events. We get frustrated with Him...He foresaw this, He knew this would happen. We get angry and ask why God would let this happen.
God gave us the free will. He knew we would be capable of doing both good, glorifying things with it as well as terrible, hateful things. God truly does make all things work together for the good of His people. It is not God taking the terrible and troublesome things that He has ordained to happen, He takes the things we destroy and builds them into new life.
Although I believe these things to be true, I would never present these words to a person who has just lost their loved one in a tragedy, or has fallen victim to a tragic even themselves. That is the last thing you want to hear - that God will do something good with this destruction. We have to be allowed to grieve. To let the hurt pour out of a broken heart. To be angry and frustrated. If we are told to deny these feelings that is like the same robotic existence as being without free will and God's love. If we are angry and frustrated with God, He can handle it.
What do you tell someone who is a victim or has lost someone to a tragic event? Sometimes words can't offer much. Let them yell. Let them cry. Yell and cry with them. The comfort we can offer each other is a blessing from God, even if we don't know it or acknowledge it. Being His hands and feet is not just an active, on the move kind of task. We can be His arms to hold someone in need as well.
Free will is still far beyond my grasp. And that is good, because it would be way to much for any human being to handle. I think an important thing to do in these times is to give love to others and to be honest and sincere with our feelings. And to match all of our promised prayers with actual prayers.
~SP
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