"All Part of God's Plan"

Natural disasters, human tragedy, and cruelty.  Christians sometimes say these things are "God's will" or "part of His plan."

Why?

It is an effort to find a rational explanation which accommodates several core beliefs:

1. God is omnipotent, all-knowing, and all-powerful.
2. God is "in control" of our lives.
3. God loves us.

None of that is technically wrong, yet these beliefs are often taken together to mean that God continually exerts himself on our behalf and for our betterment even when things are at their worst.  When one believes that God has an active hand in all things, it is difficult to explain why that active hand ignores suffering.  "God's will/plan" is the noncommittal answer, the way of saying "I don't know, but I have faith that this is for our own good."

It's fine to live your life believing that God is active and your troubles are opportunities to learn and grow.  But it should not be used as a way to avoid pain or grief, and it should not be thrown about as empty comfort.  Too often, it is adhered to because it is the easy answer and therefore the lazy answer.  It ignores both the hard questions and the people who ask them.  It sometimes belittles pain and suffering and anger.

I believe in a loving God, but responding to the cruelties of this world with the idea that our pain is integral to God's master plan comes across as "Oh, that happened because God's a dick.  But it's for our own good, so you should shut up and calm down."

And that's not the message anyone wants to convey.  I'm pretty sure.

Here are my hypotheses; my ways to reconcile a loving, omnipotent God who allows horror to affect us.  (Note that a hypothesis is an assumption without proof.)

1. Cruelty occurs (my strongest hypothesis) because mankind has free will and sometimes that free will is used for evil.  All the terrors and inhumanity performed by humans on one another is because of humans.
2. Natural disasters and disease occur (and this is my weakest hypothesis, but I prefer it to God as a mass-murderer) because this world is not permanent.  It is not meant to last forever.  It is a temporary plane of existence and therefore physically flawed.  God called the world "good," not "perfect."  Our bodies age and decay, and sometimes they break down early.  Our world breaks and trembles because it is finite.
3. God is not ambivalent.  This is more of a theory because there's plenty of proof in the Bible.  God cares.  And I don't think he's abandoned humanity.  I think he's just more focused on our spiritual well-being than our physical well-being.  Bodies are temporary, but the soul is eternal.
4. There is no good reason for evil.  Not everything that happens has to have a greater purpose.  Christ's death had a purpose.  Other than that, it's up to each individual to decide how to face these things.  Do they have meaning for you or are they random?  I don't think either approach is wholly wrong.
5. Can God prevent tragedy?  Yes.  Does he?  Probably.  Then why would he let X happen?  I don't know.  It would be hubris to claim that I know God's motives for doing (or not doing) anything.  I will not offer explanations I don't have, and I doubt that there are any easy answers for this.  If the existence of tragedy is a deal-breaker for you, then there is nothing I can say that will change the fact that God is powerful enough to make this world and our lives perfect and yet tragedy, horror, and evil still occur.

Here is how I cope.

Bad things happen to good people.  To innocent people.  It is heart-breaking.  No buts, no qualifiers.  It just is.

I believe that one of God's most amazing gifts to this world is the ability to bring good from evil.  Be it an outpouring of aid to a disaster area, a victim growing up to help other victims, or a ravaging disease inspiring someone to work in medicine, humanity is capable of great compassion when horror finds us.  It doesn't always happen -- humans are imperfect -- but our capacity to try and balance evil with good is boundless.  We have seen so many families and communities and nations come together to seek justice or relief or protection for others.  And that is good.  That quality is from God, given to us at creation, his precious gift to us.

It doesn't solve our problems.  It doesn't erase the darkness.  But it does provide the one thing we couldn't live without.

Hope.

And that is how I have faith in the face of evil.