I read a man’s suicide note last week. His name was Joe Bodolai. He was a comedy writer in his time. He posted a final blog, posting the things he’d accomplished that he was proud of, and the things he regretted, such as his alcoholism. Soon after, he killed himself in a hotel room. In the blog, he cursed God, saying He was evil if He existed, because of the atrocities committed in the world.
We teach our children responsibility. We tell them to own up to their own actions, not to blame others for their own mistakes, and no one will ever wave a magic wand and make their consequences disappear. Yet when someone overdoses on heroin, we blame God for not yanking the needle from their arm, rather than obeying God’s command of love and taking the drugs away ourselves and flushing them down the commode. When a homeless man is beaten to death by delinquent teens, we blame God for making him homeless rather than taking him in ourselves or paying for a place for him to stay, and we blame God for the violence, rather than the society that so loves violence, the Tarantino and Rodriguez films that depend on gratuitous gore to make their money at the box office. We don't blame the parents who beat and abused their children and drove them to life on the streets.
Every injustice and atrocity in this world is caused by sin, which is as you know, rebellion against God’s will. If those in third world countries are starving, it’s because a dictator has withheld provisions to pay for his palaces. Or because none of us saw fit to travel to those countries and feed the hungry. That’s beneath us, a novelty as we see it, something Miss America contestants say.
But we refuse to take responsibility for our own actions, or inactions. We instead throw tantrums as children and irrationally blame God for the things we chose to do or not to do. This is why sin is such a harmful and destructive thing, not only because it hinders the good in our own lives, but because it damages the lives of others. Your sins, my sins, can so easily lead another astray, lead them to lose hope, lead them to stop caring for themselves and others, and lead them to deny God.
And when God intervenes and delivers someone from their peril, whether it was self-inflicted or not, as He so often rescues us, we scoff and call them liars out of bitterness and envy.
We laud responsibility for our own actions, but we blame God when we do atrocious things or do nothing to stop them. We accept the idea that God exists, we even accept that He has statutes that we’re to follow for our own sakes and for the sakes of others. But when we break His commandments, and disaster follows, we forsake God and hate Him by claiming He doesn’t exist.
That’s the worst way a person can convey their hate - by claiming those they despise don’t exist.
If I know someone like Joe Bodolai, who I know to be in pain, and I turn them away and do nothing to help them, their pain is on my hands and not the fault of God, whose command of love I've broken.
I hate that you were hurting, and I hope you didn’t mean those things you said; I love you Joe Bodolai.
“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God to do wickedness, and from the Almighty to commit iniquity. For He repays man according to his work, and makes man to find a reward according to his way. Surely God will never do wickedly, nor will the Almighty pervert justice.” -Job 34:10-12
We teach our children responsibility. We tell them to own up to their own actions, not to blame others for their own mistakes, and no one will ever wave a magic wand and make their consequences disappear. Yet when someone overdoses on heroin, we blame God for not yanking the needle from their arm, rather than obeying God’s command of love and taking the drugs away ourselves and flushing them down the commode. When a homeless man is beaten to death by delinquent teens, we blame God for making him homeless rather than taking him in ourselves or paying for a place for him to stay, and we blame God for the violence, rather than the society that so loves violence, the Tarantino and Rodriguez films that depend on gratuitous gore to make their money at the box office. We don't blame the parents who beat and abused their children and drove them to life on the streets.
Every injustice and atrocity in this world is caused by sin, which is as you know, rebellion against God’s will. If those in third world countries are starving, it’s because a dictator has withheld provisions to pay for his palaces. Or because none of us saw fit to travel to those countries and feed the hungry. That’s beneath us, a novelty as we see it, something Miss America contestants say.
But we refuse to take responsibility for our own actions, or inactions. We instead throw tantrums as children and irrationally blame God for the things we chose to do or not to do. This is why sin is such a harmful and destructive thing, not only because it hinders the good in our own lives, but because it damages the lives of others. Your sins, my sins, can so easily lead another astray, lead them to lose hope, lead them to stop caring for themselves and others, and lead them to deny God.
And when God intervenes and delivers someone from their peril, whether it was self-inflicted or not, as He so often rescues us, we scoff and call them liars out of bitterness and envy.
We laud responsibility for our own actions, but we blame God when we do atrocious things or do nothing to stop them. We accept the idea that God exists, we even accept that He has statutes that we’re to follow for our own sakes and for the sakes of others. But when we break His commandments, and disaster follows, we forsake God and hate Him by claiming He doesn’t exist.
That’s the worst way a person can convey their hate - by claiming those they despise don’t exist.
If I know someone like Joe Bodolai, who I know to be in pain, and I turn them away and do nothing to help them, their pain is on my hands and not the fault of God, whose command of love I've broken.
I hate that you were hurting, and I hope you didn’t mean those things you said; I love you Joe Bodolai.
“Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: far be it from God to do wickedness, and from the Almighty to commit iniquity. For He repays man according to his work, and makes man to find a reward according to his way. Surely God will never do wickedly, nor will the Almighty pervert justice.” -Job 34:10-12
