Seemingly unconnected faith ramblings...

For a multitude of reasons the idea of God's will in the my life and in the world at large has been on my mind recently. Job searching, relationships, and the world at large have all lead to me pausing recently and attempting to reflect a bit. And then perhaps put into writing a load of incoherent, unconnected thoughts on the subject. Then, last night, I rewatched the first part of 10 of Krysztof Kieslowski's film series, Decalogue. The series itself may be one of the greatest works of art ever, but thats for another time. In film one, a father of a prodigious young boy is faced with a tragedy that may have been, at least in part, on his shoulders.

One thing though that has kept on hitting me over the head in the past few weeks is that, just because something is happening in our world in in my life, it does not neccessarily and absolutely follow that such happenings are of God or God's will. Yes, it is written and said that God is all knowing and all powerful. It seems like it should neccessarily follow that all that happens in this world and in my life passes through His hands, and is exactly what He wants. I am not claiming to know all the answers or the reasons for happenings in this world, but I think even looking through the Bible you can see that this isn't the case. One only has to look at the Gospels, and see in John 11:35 where Jesus wept over Lazarus to see that real life pain affects Him. If Jesus was the Son of God and he is weeping over the loss of his friend then where does this leave us? In the case of the father in Deacalogue 1, there may not be comfort for him if he were to hear that the tragedy was God's will. What does that leave him with.

In today world it's difficult as a person of faith to reconcile what I see as less than loving remarks and actions by our President. Especially when he claims that he had spoken to God before this Iraq invasion. Especially when 3 years down the line from all press reports, there doesn't seem to be any way out. But, as long as W. has God's blessing right?

But really this isn't entirely meant to be a condemnation of W or his policies, there are enough people doing that much more eloquently than me. I'm just thinking out loud. As one of faith it would be seemingly easy to dismiss events as part of God's greater plan, something that I don't really understand yet. But, where would we be throughout history if we always stood on the sidelines and did that. And where would I be in my own life, if I continued to do that and just waited for God to throw pieces where He may. I just think that there may be some times that God is crying along with us, and mourns with us. I don't see him as an impartial observer. And sometimes it may be just for the mourning, and other times the mourning may need to lead to a taking action, or at least a different route.