Making Sense

Frequently life doesn’t make sense.  Bad things happen to good people.  Terrible events touch the innocent as well as the guilty.  Great things happen to those undeserving as well as to those earning their rewards.  It’s hard to see the logic.  If there is a God why isn’t life fair, balanced, and even.  If Divinity cares, why do innocents suffer?  Why isn’t good rewarded and evil punished?
 
Frankly I don’t know.  Even after five decades I do not have an answer.  My extended thoughts on the subject today do not make much more sense than the first time I asked the questions as a young boy.  Yet there are two insights which have come with time. 
 
First, true love and caring is always about the long term, not just the immediate.  When one cares from the soul one focuses on more than the moment at hand.  One steps into the life and relationship with an eye on the individual and their long term happiness.  Values and priorities matter.  Roles in the community are considered.  Progress, developments, and growth are nurtured and encouraged.
 
Second, God cares about each and all.  We, every member of the broader human community, are part of God’s family.  The tenets of life are available and apply to all.  Each benefits from God’s grace, compassion, and mercy.  Each receives the outcomes of human choices – good, bad, and otherwise.  Unintended consequences touch the innocent and the guilty.  The gift of freedom exists in a world where people hold the choice of being selfish or community centric.  Divinity continues to make a case for community while we make up our minds.
 
Does this make sense?  Yes and no.  I know God love you, me, and every member of the broader community.  “Doom, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David set camp!  Let the years add up, let the festivals run their cycles, but I'm not letting up on Jerusalem.  The moaning and groaning will continue.  Jerusalem to me is an Ariel.”  (Isaiah 29.1, 2)  One can hope and pray we make up our minds quickly.