I was thinking recently about the Problem of Evil. It is, perhaps, he greatest quandary of the Christian faith. I've read several books on the subjects and I'm sure I'll continue to study it in the future, but one thing I realize that amazes me continually is that I don't get it... And by that I mean, I can't get it. The Bible speaks quite clearly to this issue in both Job and the Gospels and the answer that God gives, however unsatisfactory, is that there are some things we just can't understand. And that may sound anti-intellectual, but its true nevertheless. The fact is that there are things out there that are fully incomprehensible, metaphysical questions that we will just never grasp. And at some point we need to embrace that. I don't mean we should stop funding science or anything like that. I just mean that at some point we must come to grips with the fact that we ourselves are not capable of understanding everything, that it is only intellectual arrogance to assume that all knowledge is within our grasp.
I think the event that prompted this little nugget of wisdom occurred about nine years ago, with the arrival of our first child. When Alyssa born and I held her for the first time, there arose within me a feeling that was hitherto unknown. It was the love of a father for his daughter. And I remember thinking at the time, "Oh, that's what they meant." It was at that moment that I finally understood what it was my parents had been telling me for 28 years when they said that they loved me. Up to that point my perspective on love had been limited to the understanding of a son to a parent. Now, I stand on the other side of that relationship and I can say with absolute certainty that it's completely different. Until I was a father myself I had no idea what my own father meant when he said that he loved me. I understand now, but I had to actually become something else to gain that insight.
On perhaps an even simpler level, consider this: what is it like to be a mother? I will NEVER know. I'm a man. I can talk to mothers. I can try to serve a mothering role to a child, but I will never go through a pregnancy or give birth. I will never develop the bond that a mother has with a child she has felt grow inside her body. I cannot understand. No man can.
Anyway, my point is that I had to BE a father before I could understand the whole measure of a father's love. One who is childless simply cannot get it. Oh, sure, there is some limited understanding, like seeing a bride through her veil though, it's not the same thing. SO, without trashing science or philosophy or any other pursuit of knowledge, when it comes to God's response to the problem of evil, I get it. I understand why the Bible doesn't offer a likable explanation. It's not that God can't explain it, its that we're too dumb to understand it. And, yes, that's a gross oversimplification, but the point is made: There is a realm of mystery we just can't unravel, and the answer to the problem of evil often dwells in that realm.
And I realize that might be incredibly frustrating for some people. What makes it okay for me personally is the knowledge that even though I don't always get it, sometimes can't get it, I know that God can get it, does get it, and is on my side. I don't have to understand every evil that happens around the world, or even to me personally, because I serve a God who is good and who will ultimately take care of it, even if I die before justice is served.
In the end, I don't enjoy ignorance on these matters, but neither do I fear it. Evil is still evil, and we should always try to understand the world around us, but let us not be so arrogant as to assume that the answers are ours for the having. Sometimes they're just not...
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The ramblings of a wandering mind.
