Originally Posted by
bionicarm
http:///forum/post/3012179
I think you're misunderstanding what I mean about 85% of the people who believe in religion. If God is so loving and caring, then why does he bring as much grief to the people who believe in him, as to the people who don't? I'm not speaking for anyone. I just see it for what it is. It has nothing to do with admonishing someone for believing in their respective religion. I just see it as if you believe in God, it seems you would have less grief and strife in your life as opposed to someone like me who could care less if there is this mythical person or not. As far as I've seen, it makes no difference.
How does suffering 'bring you closer to God'? Seems to me it would be the other way around. If someone is causing me grief and pain, they're the last person I'd want to be around. I also don't get this 'God calls me to help'. How exactly is that done? Does he actually 'speak' to you in your mind, or do you get some 'sign' that tells you to do whatever it is you think you should be doing? No one has ever been able to explain this one to me. Some psychologist would even lock you up in a rubber room if you claimed you actually spoke with God. Remember the John Denver/George Burns movies?
It's not God's fault people suffer. God doesn't want people to suffer.
We have free will - we can choose good or we can choose evil. If Bob chooses to do evil and kidnaps one of Jack's kids, then why should Jack blame God? It's Bob's fault. If God took the guess work out of everything and forced us to choose one option, we wouldn't have freedom... we'd be robots. We're not robots, so it's more likely that we have free will. And a lot of people choose evil. That evil causes bad things to happen.
Don't blame God for all the evil in this world. It's a cop-out, and frankly a pathetic excuse to hate God.
I say that suffering can bring you closer to God because even though he did not cause it, he can help you through it. I quit my job at a 200 person church in Southern California because they were the kind of people I can't work with... the ones who care more about making money by growing the church than actually doing some good. For 6 months, I was without a job... with a wife and daughter, I had no place to live, no money for food, nothing. It was really scary. I didn't blame God for that... I didn't blame anyone actually, except for myself. But I prayed. As I was praying, I got a call from someone offering their home to us, which I took up. I would get checks (one was $2,000 from a ministry that knew I needed help) in the mail from anonymous sources. I can call it dumb luck, I can call it random compassion. Or I can call it God taking care of me. I'm not the only one that understands the call of God. There are others who feel called to give money to others in times of financial hardships. You know it's from God because it's anonymous. If the person giving the money was giving it to help their own social status, everyone would know about it. But to this day, I still don't know where most of the money came from.
Not to mention the fact that i now have an awesome job, 10 times better than the one I had. For starters, this church is huge (900-1000 people), and many of them are people just like me - they hate church. I've got better friends (who actually care - what a concept), live in a better community, and my relationship with my wife is so much stronger because of what we've gone through.
I had to suffer for 6 months, but the payoff was far greater than what i was expecting. If I didn't have the FAITH to quit my last job, this would have never happened. That's what I mean by God using our sufferings to bring us closer to Him.
Just to clarify, I'm not a pastor. I'm a Music Director.
