This is a bit different than what I usually post, but I got an email from a woman at my church last night about a program her daughter has been involved with and it’s something I think you should all know about, and consider responding to, because taking just a few minutes out of your day could save someone’s life. Read on for more info…

Thanks Mom 2008
The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) helps patients in need of marrow transplants find a matched donor. May 5th marked the start of “Thanks Mom,” a national effort by NMDP to bring people to the national marrow Registry during the two weeks surrounding Mother’s Day (May 5-19). They need 46,000 people to join the Registry in the next two weeks.

How to join the Registry
Joining the Registry is incredibly easy - you can register online at www.marrow.org (click on the “Grow the Donor Garden” link near the top) and provide some basic health information, or there is a list of locations in your area if you’d rather register in person. (I just registered online and it only took me 6 minutes.) After registering, NMDP will send you a kit with directions explaining how to swab the inside of your cheek a couple times, and then you just send it back to them in the provided, postage-paid envelope.

Seriously, who doesn’t have time to do that? And during the next two weeks, the cost has been covered by generous sponsors, so now is the time to join the Registry!

What happens after I join?
If you are ever identified as a potential donor, NMDP will call you. Donating marrow can be as simple as donating blood or plasma. In case you’ve never done either, that’s okay. Here’s a video that shows just how easy it is.

“Thanks Mom” will help patients across the country who need a marrow transplant to live. Many don’t yet have a possible donor on the Registry, and many will die while waiting. Every day, 6,000 patients across America - that’s 6 THOUSAND people EVERY DAY - are searching the Registry for a match. Imagine if one of these people was your mom, dad, brother, sister, husband, wife, child, friend….or you.

Visit www.marrow.org to register today…or, if you really don’t have six minutes to do it right now, please make sure you register before May 19th.

Pass this on to friends, relatives, neighbors, coworkers, or anyone else you can think might register. Every bit of awareness about how easy it is to help save lives will make a difference. You can even become a fan of NMDP’s “Donor Garden” on Facebook.

Still not sure?
Watch this video to meet Matt & Alexandra, a brother and sister who are alive today because someone like you took the time to register with NMDP and donate when they were called.

Some of you may remember this post I wrote back in February about my regrets over not seeing Coldplay during my senior year of college, along with my hopes that the tour that accompanies the upcoming release of their new album (Viva la Vida, June 17th) will include a stop in Minneapolis. Well apparently Coldplay’s management reads anewdoxology; either that or they know I’m not the only Coldplay fan in the Twin Cities who would pay whatever they want to charge for tickets in order to see them live, because while I was driving around yesterday the new Coldplay single “Violet Hill” came on the radio (sidenote: this song was offered as a free download on coldplay.com last week and it was reportedly downloaded by over 600,000 people in the first 24 hours), after the song the DJ made a comment, no, make that a promise, that Coldplay would be coming to Minnesota this summer as part of their tour. How awesome is that? I was so pumped I sent a text to my friend Tim (the same one who invited me to come with him to the Coldplay concert during college), but because I was texting while driving (not recommended, and probably illegal) it ended up saying “Cokeplay is coming this summer!” Oh well, typos and unsafe driving aside, I’m pretty excited about this. I just hope that the tour schedule is released soon so I can make sure I’m in town for the show.

I’m not sure how many of you watch 60 Minutes regularly, but every once in a while me and my roommates see previews for something interesting that’s going to be on and we set the DVR to record it. I just watched a segment from last night’s episode while eating lunch today and it was really great. The segment was called “Dr. Farmer’s Remedy” and it tells the incredible story of Paul Farmer, a doctor who has literally helped save millions of lives by providing free health care for people throughout the world, many of them who were suffering from treatable illnesses like malaria, tuberculosis, aids and women who die in child birth. Along with a few others doctors, Farmer helped start Partners in Health around 20 years ago. Today, Partners in Health has hospitals and provides care in nine countries including Peru, Russia, Mexico, three countries in Africa and the country where Farmer was first inspired to begin doing what he does, in Haiti.

Please watch this video segment from 60 Minutes. It’s only 12 minutes long and it offers an incredible glimpse into the life and perspective of a person who sees hope where others only see hopelessness. (I couldn’t embed the video on this page, but click HERE to watch it on cbs.com.) The images of people, poverty, landscape and roads in this short video look incredibly similar to what I’ve seen in Haiti.

By the way, a few days ago I bought plane tickets to go to Haiti at the end of June to make a documentary that will hopefully create some more awareness of what is going on there and the need for more people to join Paul Farmer in believing that the persistent efforts of committed people over time really can make a difference.

[If you haven't been following the emails I've been sharing between me and my friend Jenny, you can click HERE to read Jenny's first email and then go through and read the rest in order (they are all linked together). You might notice from the time stamps at the top of each email that we seemed to stop writing after only about 3 days, but we have actually continued writing (although not as regularly) for the past six weeks, and we brought a few other people into the conversation as well. After struggling to coordinate schedules, four of us actually got together at a friend's house last week to have dinner and a really interesting conversation about a lot of the questions in these emails. I sent Jenny an email a few days ago to thank her for bringing everyone together for a great conversation and ask her if it was okay to share some of our emails here (her response is below). I want to thank her for allowing me to share these with you, not only because it is a bit of a window into her life and faith (and that can be a scary thing to share with people, especially in a space like this), but also because I think her specific thoughts and questions express the way many people think and wonder about God's role in their lives and the world. Although I realize I don't have any of this figured out any better than the next person, I hope someone got something out of reading all these emails. If you have thoughts you'd like to share (or questions you'd like to ask) in response to anything in particular, or even about the conversation as a whole, please leave a comment.]

From: Jenny
To: Andy
Subject: Re: Can I share?
Date: Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 1:22 PM

Hey Andy. I don’t mind at all if you use portions of our emails on your blog, and thank you for taking time out of your night to meet with us. I think one of the biggest things I came away with last night was the fact that faith is more of a journey, and not a destination. I think I kind of already knew that, but many of the things you shared really drove it home for me. I know life is very busy, so I really appreciate you taking the time to meet last night!

Thanks, Andy!

Jenny

______________________________________________________________________

If you would like to continue reading or thinking about the questions and issues raised in these emails, I would highly recommend the book Letters from a Skeptic by Greg Boyd. Boyd is the senior pastor at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota and this book is a collection of letters between he and his father (who was not a Christian at the time). In the relatively short time I have taken issues of faith and theology seriously, I have found very few people who are as knowledgeable and understandable as Greg Boyd. If reading a book - or even buying a book and putting it on your bookshelf with the intention of reading it someday - seems like more of a commitment than you’re ready to make right now, I gave a 20-minute sermon on the question “why keep believing?” at Journey a few weeks ago (responding to several of the questions and doubts that often trip us up in our faith). You can listen to it here. (Note: In no way am I trying to imply that my short message summarizes Boyd’s book or even compares to his level of communication, but it’s just an option for anyone looking to think more about all this — I suppose it’s also a shameless plug to get people to listen to my sermon, but I can live with that.)

Whether you listen to my sermon or not, there’s something I’ve been wishing I had said in that message, and even though it doesn’t necessarily fit here, I’m going to share it anyway…

I believe God loves the whole world (John 3:16 says, “for God so loved the world”). I also believe God is present and active throughout the world; even in remote villages that missionaries haven’t visited yet, or nations where people aren’t waving the flag of Jesus Christ. God loves the world and God is doing the best God can do–given the current situation of the world and who God has to work with (us)–to make positive changes in the world.

]]> http://anewdoxology.com/2008/05/01/subject-can-i-share/feed/ Andy http://anewdoxology.com/2008/04/29/subject-re-i-have-a-few-questions-3/ http://anewdoxology.com/2008/04/29/subject-re-i-have-a-few-questions-3/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 04:39:55 +0000 Andy http://anewdoxology.wordpress.com/?p=217

[The email below is part of a conversation between me and my friend Jenny. If you're just joining in, it will probably make more sense if you go back to the beginning and read them in order (they are all linked together). Click HERE to read Jenny's first email.]

From: Andy
To: Jenny
CC: Sarah
Subject: Re: I have a few questions
Date: Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 11:44 PM

Sarah, sorry I forgot to include you on the last email. I’m glad Jenny copied you on her response so you could keep up with our back and forth thoughts…and to make sure you stay in the loop on the planning for our first session. Feel free to add in your own questions and responses if you’d like, or just read along.

Jenny, I’m glad you feel comfortable enough to ask your honest questions and if anything I’ve written has helped you make better sense of things, then I’m thankful. I think Letters From a Skeptic is a perfect book for you to be reading, along with Matthew’s gospel. Greg Boyd (Skeptic author) does a great job (with the help of his dad’s letters) of addressing some of the biggest God questions ever asked, and he responds to them using some of the most ordinary/everyday language possible (which is quite an accomplishment).

Both of you, let’s make plans to get a small group together and chat about some of these questions. Fridays are typically a good day for me because I don’t have class. I don’t remember meeting Becky, but Sarah says I’ve met her before, and she sounds like someone with great questions as well, so hopefully the four of us can have coffee or lunch together to see if we can figure out what God’s up to in the world and in our lives.

Sarah, I hope your night at work went better than you expected.

Jenny, I hope the kids behave well so you can continue your quest for spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Andy is going to bed because he’s a tired dude.

Peace out.

[Click HERE to read Jenny's last email and my summary of this conversation.]

[The email below is part of a conversation between me and my friend Jenny. If you're just joining in, it will probably make more sense if you go back to the beginning and read them in order (they are all linked together). Click HERE to read Jenny's first email.]

To: Jenny
From: Andy
CC: Sarah
Subject: Re: I have a few questions
Date: Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 11:08 PM

Andy,

Please do not ever worry about how long it takes you to respond to my emails! I do not want you to feel any pressure about getting back to me asap. I never know when I am going to get back to the computer and if I do, many times I am called away before I even get to type in my password.

I appreciate you dealing with me because I do feel like I am going in circles sometimes! I feel like I get things figured out and then something else brings me right back to the beginning. I will resist the urge to ask you more questions tonight.

As for getting together, I would LOVE to. I do have a friend that I would like to invite along in addition to Sarah~I don’t know if you have met Becky. I used to teach with her and she and Sarah are friends as well. She was also in our group when Sarah, myself and others read The Purpose Driven Life. I think we have a lot of the same questions. Becky and I are also reading the book of Matthew together. Neither of us have read much of the bible and so we decided to dive in together. Have I convinced you yet that she would be a good candidate to include in our discussion?

I also decided to get back to reading Letters from a Skeptic. I started it a long time ago, and never finished it, but I am pretty sure it deals with a lot of the questions I am having.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and your time. I will look at my calendar and throw out some dates for a possible gathering. I would have my people call your people, but I am afraid that my peoples’ inexperience with numbers, the calendar and reading for that matter would just confuse things.

Take care,
Jenny

[Click HERE to read my response to this email.]

[The email below is from a conversation between me and my friend Jenny. If you're just joining in, it might make more sense if you go back to the beginning and read them in order (they are all linked together). Click HERE to read Jenny's first email.]

To: Jenny
From: Andy
Subject: Re: I have a few questions
Date: Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 10:01 PM

Jenny,

Sorry I haven’t been able to respond to your last email yet and I don’t have the energy to do it tonight because I’m thinking an early bedtime is in order. I will offer a few quick general comments though.

As a general rule, big God questions (like the ones you’re asking) only flow out of really honest faith. If people didn’t have faith they wouldn’t have much reason to ask questions (or at least not to care about the questions and the implications of their “answers”). I think a lot of people assume that having questions and doubts means they don’t have faith, and I can understand this assumption, but I don’t think anything could be further from the truth. I used to talk about this with my dad a lot, and I remember a conversation with him on the phone while I was in college when he said “doubt is not the opposite of faith, but doubt is part of faith. Disbelief is the opposite of faith.” I’ve thought about this a lot over the years, and it’s continued to make more sense as I’ve come to understand what it means to “have” faith and come to some deeper realizations of what faith actually is. If you spend a few minutes just thinking about what faith is, you’ll eventually realize that faith cannot possibly exist without doubts - they’re mutually exclusive to each other. Having faith is believing in something that we can’t see, touch, hear or experience in any other ways that fit our earthly/human understandings. Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish philosopher and theologian from the 19th century explained faith as “a person blind-folded walking down a pier on a foggy night, not knowing where the pier ends, but taking the next step.” The imagery of this definition has been helpful to me as I’ve continually attempted to deepen my own personal faith. I bring my biggest questions to God, not because I doubt God’s existence, strength, power, love or plans, but because I believe those things about God and I trust that God is the only one who can handle those questions. Simply having questions about God proves to me that I believe in God, and the act of asking God those questions shows me that I trust that God can respond to my questions. Where faith enters into the situation and gets tricky on a day-by-day, minute-by-minute level is when we have to live without knowing the answers (or in our misunderstandings of how God has been trying to respond to our questions). Another helpful quote for me about all this is from C.S. Lewis, who, when he wasn’t writing about lions, witches and wardrobes, once wrote the statement “I believe in the presence of God as surely as I believe in the presence of the sun. Not merely because I can see it, but because by its light all things can be clearly seen.”

Sorry for not responding to any of the specific questions in your last email, but I hope some of these more general thoughts are helpful. I’ll try to keep up with your questions and would actually love to get together to talk (maybe with Sarah and anyone else who’s interested) about any or all of this in person sometime, but for now email works just fine. I just can’t make any promises that I’ll always be able to respond right away. This is fun for me, so never feel like you’re inconveniencing me with your emails.

And by the way, I didn’t talk to any of the girls at Panera (most of them seemed to be going out to eat with their boyfriends…boo!).

Have a good week.

Andy

P.S. If you’re looking for something to do with 18 minutes of your life, my sermon from Journey last Sunday (on servanthood and Jesus washing his disciples’ feet) is online, click here to listen to it.

[Click HERE to read Jenny's response to this email.]

[The email below is from a conversation between me and my friend Jenny. If you're just joining in, it might make more sense if you go back to the beginning and read them in order (they are all linked together). Click HERE to read Jenny's first email.]

To: Andy
From: Jenny
CC: Sarah
Subject: Re: I have a few questions
Date: Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 10:13 PM

Andy,

I printed off your responses (not answers) and have been reading them over and writing all over the edges. Not sure that my email will very easy to understand–bits and pieces here and there and a lot more questions. I will do my best to make sense. You wrote at a level I could understand and gave me some great things to think about. I don’t know that I am able to summarize yet, but maybe in some parts. I will try and tell you what I think at this point and maybe you could point out other things I need to consider or where I might be just plain wrong. It was comforting to hear that my questions are ones that many faithful people struggle with. Although I know it is good to question, sometimes it makes me wonder how strong my faith is when I seem to know so little!

You said —God’s kingdom is already here.
As in he is with us, engaged in our lives, but we are blind to some of the ways he is touching our lives? And when you say God is active in this world right now, does that mean he doesn’t just sit back and watch–he is stepping in.

John 1:1
I have heard before that the Word is Jesus. How did people come to that conclusion?

Matthew 22:1-14
Was that saying that the first people God invited–Noah’s time–didn’t deserve to come and so he flooded the earth. Then he invited all people, good and bad, but the man not wearing wedding clothes–was he not believing that Jesus is the son of God, or repentant for his sinful ways?
All are invited but few are chosen—does that mean God choose us or is it that we need to choose him?

Heaven/hell
I did look in the back of my bible and saw that hell was mentioned several times. Does it say that if we do not choose to believe we will go to hell? What you wrote seems to make sense to me or does not really raise many more question. I like your metaphor at the end likening God’s desire to return home to our parents’. I feel like when trying to understand God’s position, I often try to look at it from a parent/child point of view.
However, the only question I have from this part is what about those wonderful people who were raised in a Jewish (or any other) home. It is much less difficult for me to accept Jesus as our savior.

Why was I so lucky to be born into a Christian home? A place where I am not at risk of being killed for my beliefs? Chance and luck? Will God go easy on those who did not have an easy of a decision as I did/do?

Okay, the prayer and how I view God.
When I read The Purpose Driven Life it seemed to be saying that God planned out every detail of my life, he knew I would be emailing you right now. That is a little tough for me to swallow. I believe in free will and it does make sense that free will and God having a firm plan does not jive. I think that God made us, and has the intent for us to have a good life and maybe even a rough outline-or what he thinks is unique about us that will guide our path a little differently than our neighbors’. However, as you said, we live in a fallen world, bad things happen. I do not (or do not want to) believe that God plans bad things. I don’t want to believe that God makes children sick or has a father die to test someone. I like to think that our fallen world is responsible for the tragedy and that although God will not reach down and stop it from happening it to us, he will help us cope and maybe even find something good that comes from it (although it may be small in comparison to what we have lost). What about Job? I have not read the book, but isn’t it supposed to be about God testing him? Or is that taken the wrong way-was the fallen world throwing all that his way and his faith got him through it all?

A side thought to God does not reach in and stop bad things from happening–why should I not be fearful when I am flying? That whole thing about–it is not your time to die–does he sometimes take us when our purpose is fulfilled if our fallen world has not brought us to our death? I guess really it seems to me that he does not take us back to him–it just happens–our bodies fail, and accident, violence. I am not making sense any more. I will stop here.

I copied Sarah on this email. I talked to her while I was typing and I had come to her with my questions first and she encouraged me to ask you about them. I am assuming that you wouldn’t mind my looping her in!

Thanks again for taking the time to read and respond! I feel like a kid in a candy store being able to tap into all your knowledge!

Jenny

ps-did you actually talk to any of those girls at Panera?

[Click HERE to read my response to this email.]

[The email below is from a conversation between me and my friend Jenny. If you're just joining in, it might make more sense if you go back to the beginning and read them in order. Click HERE to read Jenny's first email.]

From: Andy
To: Jenny
Subject: Re: I have a few questions
Date: Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 12:22 AM

Hi Jenny,

Here goes round 2…

2. There is no hell.–However, I have found several passages in the bible that mention hell. They told me that many people think we are going to heaven or hell, but God never said we would go to hell.

There are some people (Christians included) who don’t believe in an actual hell. I’m not completely sure how it’s possible to believe in God, Jesus and the Bible, yet still come to the conclusion that hell doesn’t exist. In my opinion, I think it’s actually less that people don’t believe in hell and more that they don’t want to believe that hell exists. Again, I’m not sure I completely understand all this, but I think it would go something like this…if hell exists then not everyone goes to heaven, and if not everyone goes to heaven then there’s a chance that I might not go to heaven, and the thought that it’s possible for me to not go to heaven doesn’t make me feel good, and my not feeling good about that reflects poorly on God (who started this whole process in the first place), since God created everything (presumably including hell, or at least the devil).

Another related issue with all of this is whether or not the devil exists. Some people only believe in the existence of evil, but don’t think it’s necessary that an actual source of that evil exists in the world, since we do enough evil on our own, and the existence of the devil might only give us an excuse for doing things we shouldn’t do in the first place…”the devil made me do it!” Hell (and the devil/satan) are mentioned in the Bible several times, but they are not always given clear descriptions or names. You could do a google search for “where is hell mentioned in the bible” and find all sorts of websites devoted to setting people straight, but it’s probably worth noting that anyone who takes the time to create a website making a claim about the realness of hell is probably also a more fundamental/legalistic Christian…not that this is the worst thing you can be, but it’s far from where I’m at in my understanding of faith, God and the Bible. I just don’t see the point in beating someone over the head by using fear tactics to scare them about the possibility of going to hell. (Fear and manipulation are certainly not part of what I would consider helpful ministry, and using them to convince anyone into faith doesn’t actually result in authentic faith anyway).

In the end, it’s my strong belief that if God created all things (including me, you and your neighbor) and God loves all things (including not just me, you and your neighbor, but even the people and things we don’t think are very lovable), then God wants nothing more than to restore all things to Godself and have them enjoy eternity in paradise (with God). Although metaphors always fail in the end, it would be like the way your parents probably get excited when you and your sisters come home to visit (especially since you’ve had kids); and how, at least in some ways, they wish you never had to leave.

3. This is from a podcast I listened to with Chuck Swindoll–not from the JWs. In his closing prayer he prayed ~nothing occurs in our lives that has not been wonderfully planned by you, our father. Really?

How you think about this sort of prayer depends on how you understand the term or idea “God’s plan.” It depends on your understanding or image of God. Is God a puppet master in the sky who controls our every move? Is God a script writer who already wrote out what we’ll do and say and is watching from a tall chair to make sure we play our roles correctly (otherwise he’ll yell out “cut”). Or is God a clock maker who set everything up (created the heavens and the earth and all of us) and is now on a smoke break…so if things go wrong, it’s just touch luck, we have to figure out how to fix it ourselves (so I guess it would be like a clock without a warranty). There are other understandings of God that people can have, but they are mostly variations of these. It’d be interesting to spend some time thinking about what your understanding of God is, and then try to figure out why/how you developed this understanding. I’d be happy to help you sort through that if it’s something you wanted to explore further.

In trying to figure out why bad things happen to good people, I have tried to reason that although God has a plan for our lives, he has also given us all free will.

Rethink this statement and the questions involved with the new understanding of your image of God. I think you’ll find that the idea of God having a firm and set plan for your life goes against the idea of having free will (you can’t have both, at least not simultaneously). I hope that makes sense.

That free will is what is to blame for the awful things that happen in people’s lives but God will help us through it. He will help make lemonade out of lemons. Does he really throw bad things at us to test us? See what we will do? I think of Amanda and Mike who I do not know, except through what Sarah shares, but did God really make Grace sick to make them stronger or for some other purpose? I really struggle with this one. I also feel like I am going to have kids asking me this soon, and I don’t think I can answer it.

I took a class last semester called “God, Evil and Suffering” and we discussed questions and situations like these all the time. Not to add to your list of questions, but here are a few others that will possibly add new layers of complexity and nuance to what you’re already asking, which in a weird way might actually help you separate some of your confusion into smaller parts and eventually help you build up a clearer understanding that is beneficial to God. Rather than just asking if God “throws bad things at us to test us,” you might also ask “does God plan bad things?” or “does God allow bad things to happen?” Another series of complicated questions revolves around the idea that God is all-powerful (omnipotent) and/or all-knowing (omniscient). If God has all power, then in some way or another, God must be responsible for everything that happens (including bad things). If God knows everything, then God knows about bad things before they happen, and using God’s power, you’d think God would be able to do something to keep those bad things from happening.

I don’t want to spend much time speculating on the magnitude of God’s power and knowledge, but if we are to believe that God is the source of all things (including life, love, justice and the ability to restore things to be like new), then it can be assumed that God’s power and knowledge are perfect (whatever that means). I happen to believe that God puts a great deal of trust in humans and I get this from Genesis 1 when, after creating humans, God tells the humans to rule over all the living things on the earth (plants, animals, etc.). This shows trust. Then, in Genesis 2:19-20, God enlists the man to help name the animals. Think about that, God brought all the created animals to Adam and whatever name he said is what that animal was to be called. God shares the responsibilities and power involved in ruling over the created world with us; that’s a pretty big deal, and it implies something about who is really to blame when bad things happen (hint: it’s not all God’s fault). The most blame we might be able to put on God in most situations of bad things happening is wondering why God was dumb enough to trust us with so much control in the first place…since God must have known that we’re pretty good at messing things up (we’re not perfect), since God created us.

So why didn’t God just create us perfect? I’m not sure, but I guess I don’t see the point in God creating a whole bunch of other gods (perfect beings). Are we just part of God’s big experiment to see what will happen when a bunch of people are forced to live together and share the earth? (This sounds like we’re either an ant farm that God looks at, or in our contemporary context, God would be a bit like the casting director for The Real World).

As for a specific situation like Grace’s health and how it’s affecting great people like Mike and Amanda [her parents]…the best I can say is that we are living in a fallen world where bad things are a part of our reality. How we experience life in this world varies depending on our unique situation. We want to call the goods things “blessings” and the bad things “unfortunate realities,” but to be honest, it probably involves some luck and chance. Otherwise how could we possibly explain how Grace has to have several surgeries as a little girl while the children of “bad people” have perfect health? It just doesn’t seem fair. Some people will want to say that bad things happen to people who don’t pray enough, but then how do you explain bad things that happen to people who seem to be constantly praying? It still doesn’t seem to be fair. The older I get, and the more of the world I have seen, I am starting to come to the conclusion that things in this world really are not fair and there isn’t much rhyme or reason to why things are the way they are. I think specifically of Haiti and I can’t think of a single good reason for why the incredible people I’ve met there are living in their difficult reality while me and my friends are all living with more than we’d ever need. So I guess I struggle with this one about as much as you, and even after taking a full class on questions like these, the best I can say in response is what my professor said near the end of the semester, “God is as good as God can be given the current situation of the world.” I think this was actually a quote from a guy named St. Anselm who lived over 1000 years ago, so obviously, although the specifics have changed, the world’s imperfect situation and the confusion it creates about God is not a new thing.

I hope at least some of this has been helpful. It’s been a fun exercise for me to try relating some of the things I’ve studied into understandable responses to real questions. I don’t assume that this has cleared everything up for you, but I hope you’ll take comfort in knowing that these are questions that faithful people have been asking for thousands of years and unless some of them figured it all out and decided to keep it a secret, no one has “the” answer. Your understanding about them today is different than it will be a year from now, and throughout your life it will probably continue changing and evolving depending on your experiences. I don’t ask this just so I can feel good about how well I explained things, but if possible, would you mind writing some of your thoughts and reactions in response to all this so that I can learn what explanations were helpful and which need more clarification? Also, I think it would help you solidify your current understanding of these complex issues to try writing them out (perhaps explain them the way you would to your kids, since one of the motivations you mentioned in asking these questions was being able to respond to their questions).

Have a good weekend.

Andy

[Click HERE to read Jenny's response to this email.]

[The email below is part of a series of emails between me and my friend Jenny about some of the biggest questions people have ever asked about God, faith and the Bible. It'll probably make the most sense if you read them in order, so click HERE if you haven't read Jenny's first email.]

From: Jenny
To: Andy
Subject: Re: I have a few questions
Date: Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 10:03 PM

Andy,

Loving what you have sent me so far! It is very helpful and I can’t wait to hear more! Thanks for being so willing to share with me.

I did NOT know that the Hills is returning March 24!! Yippee!

Jenny