Saturday, May 14, 2011

May 14 - Psalm 140:8

Lord, do not let evil people
have their way
Psalm 140:8
 
The question that haunts many people is, 'If there's a good God, why do bad things happen to good people?"
 
When whole books are written on this topic, I won't try to answer the whole question; rather, I'll provide just the hint of the explanation that today's verse affords ...
 
Why do bad things happen? Because sometimes evil people like to have their way. Often it's as precisely as simple as that. Sometimes the wicked scheme. Sometimes terrorists blow. And sometimes dictators crush.
 
But let's not ignore the subtler forms of evil. A landlord who tries to turn a little extra profit, may not install smoke detectors, and children might die in a fire. Greed. One employee is lazy and doesn't double check his piece of the construction, and a bridge collapses. Sloth. Sometimes pain is a cause of a million little corruptions. Ask the child whose father abandoned his mother because of lust. (And those are only three of the deadly sins.)
 
And so we cry -- along with the martyrs pictures in Revelation -- for God to quit being patient and bring about his justice. And yet sometimes God waits. In Revelation, its clear that the waiting is to allow more people to turn to him and live. And yet our voices continue to plead. And while we celebrate that he's gracious and merciful and slow to anger with us, our hearts really do long for justice.
 
In Christ's Love,
a guy who likes the last refrains of Revelation,
"Amen, [He is] coming soon!"

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