roll with me...

There's a concept I've been struggling to explain lately. It frustrates me that I can't explain it, when it seems so simple to me. Let's see if I can get it out, and you can tell me if it makes sense, k?

Roll with it...

God created the world out of love.

He created many beautiful, wonderful creatures.

But one of these creatures He created more in his image than anyone else,
because of his desire for relationship-- to love & be loved in return.

These creatures were created for eternity. They were created to live in the presence of God forever.

However, they were not created with a pre-programmed, intuitive, robot-like, automatic return love for their creator.

Why?!

Because God knew that in order for love to be genuine, it had to be a choice. Just as He had made the choice to create mankind out of love, mankind had to be given the choice to love him back.

God could have created a little pre-programmed android army to love him back, but how unfulfilling and ungenuine would that have been?! Is love even love without a choice behind it???

So God gives man a choice. Because he loves mankind so much, he has to. How does that proverb go? Love someone and let them go, if they return you'll know they love you in return? Something like that. You get my drift.

So here we are now, created with a choice. We know that since the first guy & gal were created, we have been struggling with the choice between right and wrong, between love and no love.

And people everywhere struggle with these questions: If there is a God who loves us, how can he let bad things happen? And how can he send people to hell? Two of the most difficult questions those who believe in and love God have ever had to answer for those who are seeking the truth, as well as for themselves.

Here's how I answer them:

Just as much as there is a God in this universe who loves us and wants to be with us, there is an evil force who hates us and wants us to live in pain and misery for the rest of our lives. This evil force hates God. This is where all that shit that happens comes from. Good and bad things happen to good and bad people. That's the reality, not that bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. Anyone can give testimony to both good and bad things happening in their lives, from the account executive with 7 houses to the widowed mother of 5 living in the bush. Instead of getting hung up on why these happen, we can all agree that they DO happen. So? Good and evil are at work around us. Good created us with a choice. Sometimes we choose evil-- all of us do. And here's the kicker: all the evil we choose to do amounts to the same thing: separation from good. Whether you killed your mom, or slapped her across the face, you chose evil. This is alarming, but when you think about it, it's freeing, too. We are all allowed to mess up. We are all given a second chance. We are all allowed to choose good, immediately after we choose evil. We are all allowed to choose to be forgiven by God, the author of good, and brought back into his presence, the presence of good.

However, if we don't choose the good, if we choose instead to reject God and his goodness, we are choosing to be seperated from him. Hell is the natural seperation between God and mankind. It is not his choice. He does not send us there. He gives us the choice to be with him or not. We send ourselves there, if we so choose. BUT it is not our place while we are here on earth to determine what is in a person's heart. We cannot say from earth what eternity looks like. Just as we don't know all the ways of God, we don't know what happens between God and his creation when a person's spirit leaves this world.

A few important things to note:

I don't have this all figured out. I'm trying to...

Belief in all of this does take faith. But no matter what you choose to believe, you have to accept parts of it with faith. This world is too big, with too expansive a history to not take anything without faith.

This topic is not closed. I have merely brushed the surface. Thoughts, questions & comments are gladly appreciated.