My God… why? — Jesus Hospital orderlies, dressed in green, had taken Sammy down to the operating room. We’d said our goodbyes and now, somewhere in Southampton General Hospital, a surgeon was preparing to conduct his third operation of the day. There was nothing more I could do. Sammy’s life was in the hands of…
When We Ask Why, God? Why?
The answer to our whys may be obvious now, or they may never be answered in our lifetime. But even if we knew why, it’s likely we wouldn’t be satisfied with the answers anyway. We ask God why, believing the answer will provide us with some kind of deep soul satisfaction. But too often, we…
Do No Harm
The apostle Paul said about a healthy community, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” The Christian community, known worldwide by the symbol of a cross and by our regular partaking of a sacrament “in remembrance of Me,” should be able to make…
I Want to Know Why!
It does not help to try to quantify suffering, I have learned along the way. That the tsunami of 2004 killed far more people than the tsunami of 2011 or that more students died at Virginia Tech than at Sandy Hook Elementary School does not make one event more tragic than the other. Likewise, to…
Why God? Asking the Hard Questions
God doesn’t always answer our prayer to rid us of cancer. He can, of course, if He chooses to do so. But when He doesn’t, we can drift out of the calm waters of faith into a whirlpool of confusion. My friend Diane hit that troubled water when her ovarian cancer recurred. “Why didn’t God…