The View Up Here

I just finished a marvelous week with my family in Massachusetts and would be feeling refreshed if I weren't so tired. Actually, I do feel refreshed. My mind is clear and my spirit is refreshed, even if I need to go to bed earlier than my grand nephews' and grand niece's bedtime. However, I feel the need to blog since a couple things hit me during the past week that deserve airing. A close family member of mine is asking the tough questions about God, including, "If he's all-loving, why does God allow suffering of innocents?" The question was asked not as a philosophical exercise, but with righteous anger. Appropriately so. We should be angry at injustice and suffering. If we're not, we need to take Human lessons. Tonight as I was washing dishes in a daze, the answer rose up in my mind in a phrase: God allows suffering so that we can love. Allow me to 'splain. God has given humanity free will to either love each other or hurt each other. Thro...

I was just sitting here, thinking about "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." And I was thinking that if Jesus could forgive His accusers, torturers, murderers, we could forgive those in our lives who hurt us, mistreat us. Then I thought, wait a minute. Jesus didn't say "I forgive you" from the Cross. He asked the Father to forgive them. We sometimes put a lot of pressure on ourselves to instantly and miraculously forgive those who hurt us, or who do terrible things, evil things. And we beat ourselves up internally if we can't. But what if we aren't expected to. Not that we shouldn't try - we must. But Jesus taught us to pray for our enemies. And that's exactly what He did on the Cross. He lifted them up in prayer for forgiveness, even as he bore those awful wounds at their hands. When we are hurting, when someone has hurt us and we can't find it in our hearts to forgive them, we can breathe easier following Jesus...