The Unanswerable Questions.....

Not that long ago, there were two theological paradoxes that bugged the hell out of me...taunted me, frustrated me, confused me, occupied my thoughts throughout the day.  I simply HAD to find the answers.  I simply HAD to know the truth!!! A few years later, here I am...embarking on paths I never even knew existed. Loving God in a way I never dreamed I could back when I was so mad at him.

Did I find the answers?  Ah...no. I formed a few opinions and beliefs...subject to change.

Did I get some peace about the questions?  Thankfully, yes. 

I think I've mentioned before that John Gavazonni refers to these mysteries as "contrarianisms."  My biggest, most haunting issues?  The most confusing paradoxes? 

The existence of evil and the existence of a good God. Exactly how does that work? There is even a name for that seeming inconsistency. Theodicy - the branch of theology that defends God's goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil. 

And there was the free will and divine sovereignty question. Open theism, predestination, free moral agency..."proof" of both can be found in scripture!!   

Those were the biggies....but they were by no means the only points of frustration.  How about reconciling the God of the OT with the picture of the invisible God we see in Jesus?  How about the fairness of blinding eyes and hardening hearts (which sort of falls in under the heading of divine sovereignty)  I was so agitated for so long.  I'm not agitated anymore...and in fact, I delight in some of the questions that used to infuriate me.  I came upon the following quote the other day:

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.
—Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

There is a writing on the Rebel God site called Human Suffering and the Silence of God.  It does not have all the answers to the theodicy question but it is well worth reading and might even help promote some peace about these unanswerable questions.  In the article, there is a quote that sort of goes with the above quote...and I will end this post with it...for your consideration and musing....

The real question is, what does God want to tell us by making us ask?