Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Great Physician.....

Is the "great physician" really the great SURGEON....using evil and suffering, trials and challenges, difficulties and testing as a scalpel to rid us of our adamic/old man/carnal/nature? Does it seem so crude and barbaric and needlessly brutal because we do not understand the process and that it is meant ultimately to heal and not to hurt? We know surgery is careful and delicate but to someone who does not understand the concept, it still looks like mutilation. A surgeon holds a beating heart in his hands...a heart that he cut out of the chest of the patient who is bound to the table and unconscious. To someone who does not understand surgery, it looks like mutilation. Put that same scalpel in the hands of the onlooker and tell him to cut and it would be mutilation. It is only in knowing how much to cut, where to cut, if he should cut, when to stop cutting.....and WHY he is cutting in the first place that the difference is found.

We do not have all the facts of evil....we are not all knowing, all present...perhaps there are key elements we are missing and thus we can not make a fair unbiased assessment of the situation any more than someone who does not understand the concept of surgery could not make a fair unbiased assessment of the surgeon or the procedure. I experience a great deal of angst when I ponder evil and suffering and the no rhyme or reason (to my way of thinking) way it is doled out. The Great Physician....and theodicy.....now that's truly the great contrarianism.

2 comments:

Sue said...

Me too, darling. I think this is where the rubber hits the road, at least for me. I don't see any other question that is higher because it comes down to trust and what God's heart looks like. And I must confess, when I'm in heaps of pain, I doubt. I don't want to; I want to trust him, trust that he knows what he's doing.

Sigh. This journey is a bit of a bastard, sometimes ;)

Cindi said...

Yes Sue..this is where the rubber meets the road. The presence of evil in the world is probably the biggest cause of unbelief. How many atheists use that as their big argument. My fifteen year old daughter, teetering between believer and agnostic, cited the same issue. Starving children, war, murder, rape....as questions that remain unanswered. The "why" question that is such a stumbling block to faith. I wish I could have given her a formula for what has given me peace, but unfortunately the question remains unresolved for me, although I do not obsess about it like I used to. My life has been blessed in so many ways. Although I have known great pain, in comparison to countless others, I have known little pain. Why me? Why not me? Shrugs...

This journey IS a bit of a bastard sometimes isn't it...but it's not like we have not been warned. "In this world you will have trouble." Gee, thanks Jesus...

"But fear not for I have overcome the world"

Sometimes it just doesn't appear that way though, does it?