Sunday, May 15, 2011

God is Present

I know I have blogged about the book "Divine Nobodies" by Jim Palmer before, but I was sharing a story with the adult Sunday school class this morning ('favorite' would not be the right word to describe it - maybe the most 'impactful' story in the book) and want to share part of it again.  I couldn't make it through this paragraph without tears (p. 144):

"Somewhere over the Atlantic, forty thousand feet above the earth, these nice thoughts about God gave way to disturbing images I wish I could forget from my trip.  Now the question, where was God today? tortured me.  Today a ten-year-old girl is being strapped down tight to a bed and brutally and repeatedly raped.  God is present.  Today an eight-year-old emaciated boy is covered with a cardboard box and left to die.  Slowly he slips into unconsciousness.  God is present.  Today a young mom of three wails in bed as her skeletal body writhes with the unrelenting agony of AIDS.  God is present.  Still, I grew angry.  Why was God pushing these horrors in my face?  I was emotionally spent and wanted to go home to my world.  God could have that world; that was his deal, he's God; I didn't live in that world.

Or did I?"

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ESSE QUAM VIDERI - to be, rather than to appear
"Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God."
~Robert W. Pierce