What good can come of tragedy?

I have an acquaintance via the Internet who suffered an awful tragedy in his life. His young wife was killed in a car crash, along with his unborn child. Now this man cannot believe there is a good God who would allow that, and the subject is understandably so painful he does not wish to discuss it.

I too have a situation in which a good God does not seem to make sense. My eldest daughter is now twenty-six. She never speaks and does not use the toilet. Erin is not very aware, and often self-stimulates by waving her hand before her face. Other than that though she is easy to live with since she is usually off in her own world. She does love to go for walks, go swimming, and listen to music - so we do those things more when she is home - and so she laughs a lot when we do. When she was a young child we went to several expert doctors seeking solutions. We never found one. Erin was diagnosed as severely learning disabled with no known cause, which is true of many who suffer severe learning disability.

In one way we are more blessed than some folks. California pays for Erin to have care provided near enough to home that she can visit once a month, and Erin has a very nice family to provide that care. That is why our family situation is not nearly as bad as a friend of mine at work. His daughter is probably mentally more aware, lives at home, and is very hard to keep happy and often difficult to deal with.

So If God is good and in control, why is Erin like that? To begin with, this earth is evil, cursed because Adam disbelieved God and allowed Eve to give in to sin, then joined her. Because of Adam, because all of us choose to disbelieve God in many ways, this world will remain evil until the Messiah returns to make the world and His servants New. God is a huge fan of choice: He wants every person to desire Him from personal choice. Choice also includes the choice to do what is wrong, and wrong has consequences.

But the question remains: how can Erin's disability glorify the only good Creator if she is never healed of it? Likewise, how can the death of a mother and unborn child glorify the Creator? That is a wrong question of course. It assumes disability and death are forever, which God declares is not true. Every person who lacks the mental ability to reject God will automatically have heaven - and heaven is far more than a spiritual existance praising God all the time. Heaven will be endless adventure, loving companions, real glorious beautiful places with specific dimensions, real permanently youthful bodies which never tire nor suffer.

God's Word often uses animals to communicate what God's character is like, and uses celebrations and feasts to communicate what His kingdom will be like - so there is every reason to think there will be animals like lions, lambs, dogs, and cats for company, as well as gloriously REAL celebrations with REAL friends. While being in hell will be endless totally lonely hopelessness, knowing fully all the time that it was one's own personal choice to reject God's goodness which sent one there.

In short: Erin, that unborn child, and likely that young mother (who was faithfully going to church), will all be in heaven to enjoy the endless beauty, real companions, music, and adventure - without any pain or disability forever. I would be surprised if Erin didn't become one of the best singers of everyone there - to praise God for giving far beyond what anyone can ever deserve. How could anyone expect something more glorious than that? The other choice is only Shame, for we who can and do reject what God offers, we who choose instead to spend forever separated from the Source of all good things.

My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Proverbs 4:20-23 English Standard Version

Sharing Eternal Truth

If you are like me at all, you want to share God's wonderful truths with many folks, who may not know English well as a written language. Here is a resource for that.

BibleGateway.com - This website has many online Bibles in many languages. When I reviewed their website (January, 2007) they had: Arabic, Bulgarian, Haitian Creole, Danish, German (3), English (20), Spanish (7), French (2), Hungarian, Croatian, Icelandic, Italian (2), Korean, Maori, Netherlands, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Albanian, Russian (2), Swedish(2), Swahili, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and Chinese (2). Also it is possible to lookup a Bible passage such as "Genesis 2-3" (chapters 2 to 3) in one language and then select another Bible version to see the same passageverse. Since two distinct translations are often done by different people, this isn't really a translation of one version to another, but two distinct interpretations of the same verse done by two distinct comittees.

Wonderful Truths from God

This will be my collection of special answers God has blessed me with - verses God has given me which in some way I find supernatural. Remember none of this happened because of something I did. Most of them occurred without an expressed or even considered prayer, let alone any verbal use of "magic" words. This is because God knows what it is we desire, and it always pleases Him to glorify His Word. It is however, easy to mis-apply this. One cannot expect blind verse finding to work whenever one wants it, because that would glorify the one doing the finding, not the Source of truth Himself.

Verses can only be Supernatural Verses when the seeker really wants to know from the Holiest of all sources, and is willing to take whatever answer comes at least intending to apply it however possible. Virtually every incident where I was looking for an answer occurred when I had the feeling God had one ready for me. Not every case was like that though. If there were many incidents where I tried to blindly find verses and nothing made sense, then many of the below would be mere chance. I have tried that and failed to make sense of it perhaps twice.

On the cost of failing the duty to defend others for selfish purposes. After a long period of concern about many Americans betraying Liberty and Justice for All, my son and a friend were playing with a long tube in the swimming pool. One pulled it behind his head and the other pretended to cut it off. Later we watched TV show about a supernaturally strong but fallen hero. The following Sunday morning without connecting that, I picked an illustrated children's Bible story of Samson to read to the boys. That night I realized that could not be a simple coincidence, and decided God wanted me to read about Samson, but I didn't realize where that was in my Bible. God's hint gave me the boldness to put my finger in a new Bible blindly. My finger was on Judges 14:1. Judges 14-16

On where America was then (in 1994) in the parable of defenders giving away their duty to defend others for selfish reasons. My finger was blindly on Judges 16:19

On how seriously God takes the calling of those who know Him, and trusting in the works of men rather than in Him. This came by email and radio sermon the same week my Southern California employer was considering a contractor to do Y2K fixes in our business critical software. The consultant we were to interview was unable to come because he was the man in Southern California who contracted an infection of the flesh-eating bactieria in his leg (fortunately he recovered). Isaiah 50:4-11

In the midst of a long list of descendants of Judah, is a two sentence story about a man named Jabez, whose prayer was granted. The "Prayer of Jabez" was a classic short Christian book about this prayer. I remember praying it once seriously. I am a computer manager, and one of my primary job concerns is security of our network and user PC's. Shortly after that, the Code Red virus set a new standard by spreading automatically between Microsoft web servers. I was probably one of a handful of people who realized Microsoft's solution for Code Red directly led to serious issues when Code Red II appeared. Code Red (the original) was only a memory resident nuisance, so Microsoft advised installing the patch to prevent it and simply rebooting the server which clears out that memory. Code Red II (so named by its author) used the same software flaw to infect Microsoft web servers while installing a software means of spreading after the server was rebooted. So Microsoft's solution led to many web server administrators eliminating the obvious Code Red nuisance while missing the fact that their webserver was compromized with installed Code Red II. Later the virus Nimda spread between Microsoft web servers in part by using Code Red II installed security holes, part of Nimda also infected browsing PC's through a flaw in Internet Explorer. Perhaps this doesn't meet my requirements for a supernatural verse, but I think of it as one. Has this prayer done what was claimed for me? Well it could have meant an impressive start on a career in computer security then, but I haven't been continuing with it since. 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

A friend at work once asked me for a Bible in Vietnamese. I ordered it via the Internet. The day I was going to give it to him, I sat in my car and wondered what verse would be good to quote for him. I got that boldness again, and my finger found a verse in a language where perhaps only one letter out of three looked familiar. I had to figure out what book I was in from the table of contents, fortunately (actually by the Designer) the numbers were familiar.
The verse was Amos 4:13

I still struggle with computer gaming addiction, because I am disobedient about focusing upon Christ to distract myself from what is wrong. Lately my gaming interest is in games played with many other people on the Internet. I rationalize that I can somehow serve God's purpose as a witness for His Word through the player friends I make. One certain weeknight I stayed up until 2 AM or so. I took a break for some water, and "on impulse" turned on my personal radio (which I haven't done at night any other time). Just at that very moment a Pastor was giving the verse for a sermon. Warning: this applies to all forms of fantasy, including pornography, computer games, and fiction books or movies. Proverbs 28:19

In the late 1990's there was twice a law passed by Congress to prohibit a particularly awful form of abortion called partial birth abortion (related articles by the American Medical Assn). Our President at the time (whose name I will not glorify) vetoed those two laws. When he vetoed the second one, I again got that boldness, and this time my finger found a verse I had studied before but never considered related to the question of whether abortion was a good thing. It is part of Mary's song about being the unmarried mother of the unborn Messiah and His purpose for coming. Luke 1:54-55

As perhaps you can tell, I have been very concerned about what Gun Control means for our continued Liberty as a nation, which is why I first wanted an answer about the duty to defend others (what the Second Amendment provides for is the means for our citizens to fulfill that duty as government by and for the people, called the Militia). At one point I felt lead to try another blind finding of a verse about that concern. What I found was David, at the time anointed as Israel's next king but a fugitive from the current king, outraged that his outlaw band (a real life model like Robin Hood's supposedly was) was insulted by a land owner, and giving in to his outrage and on the verge of betraying the duty to defend even an enemy. 1 Samuel 25:13

I had another blind verse finding about the foolisness of trusting in swords. Psalm 44:3

Earlier when prohibiting partial birth abortion was up for Presidential decision, I fasted hoping it would not be vetoed. My finger blindly found this Psalm to the tune of "Do not destroy" about unjust judges, birth, wombs, lies, and stillborn children. Psalm 58