soapbox

Sharon and I have always emphasized the importance of caring-- the kind that causes you to seriously consider a person or event or idea and to really think of what it means to you and how you affect it. And while it's nearly inherently hypocritical to suggest so, it seems like people don't take the time to care or truly open their minds to think about so many things... and why not?

How dare I question God and his ways?

I tend to think that God isn't insulted when I cock my head to the side and raise my index finger barely up and say, "wait, wait a minute. you mean..." I tend to think that isn't a sin, questioning God. In this day and age, I tend to think that you could actually honor God that way.

There is of course a line. Job's own wife beseeched (beseeched? or besought?) him to "curse God and die," though he wisely declined to do so, even under what you could euphemistically call extreme duress. But question God did Job, and I think he ought to have done so. That's one half of the story.

Job chapter 38 begins what I consider one of the most breathtaking responses to a challenge I could imagine God giving. And it's what makes the whole questioning thing okay. It's a little like asking a question to which the answer you already know. Don't curse God-- that's just a losing proposition, if you ask me. But questioning God-- to me it's like failing a class; I think everyone should do it at least once in their lives. It builds a little character.

I had meant to tie this to a current event that I'm upset about, but in the interests of coherence, this seems to be a good stopping point at which to step down from the bully pulpit I have so hastily constructed.