 As fully evolving beings, there is a plan for our lives. We have to accept that fact. It is not necessary to reason out the details. Nor is it reasonable to believe that we will be misguided when we accept Universal plans for us. Unfortunately, we are not as enlightened as we could be about most things concerning the spirit realm. We scare easily when it comes to the unknown. We question divine benevolence when we believe that something is not going our way. But rest assured that there is a more confident way to exist in the world that has been provided for us. Moreover, the notion that something so horrific will happen to us that we cannot navigate our way through to a safe place is absurd because we operate under the auspices of God’s creative purpose. “The action of God includes the creation, maintenance, and governance of the world, the co-operation of God with the activity of the creature, and the working of miracles.” (Wikipedia, Section 3, “The Nature of God”, Theodicy, 2007) There is no evil great enough to disinherit our predisposition of Grace. Although there is evil in the world, we are not subject to its domination.
 The belief that evil exists in the world despite our benevolent God is called theodicy. The term literally means “the justice of God” and it comes from the Greek Өԑός (theos) “god” and δικαιοσύνη (thee-kay-o-SEE-nee) which means justice. And the term was coined by a German philosopher named Gottfried Leibniz in a work entitled “Theodicy Essay on the Benevolence of God, The Liberty of Man and the Origin of Evil”. (Wikipedia, Section 1, “Origin of the Term”, Theodicy, 2007). Leibniz wanted theologians to understand that although God is the ultimate benevolence, the presence of evil does not conflict with His goodness and that this world is the best of all possible worlds. Since this world is the only world that we are allowed to shape, we are advised to understand that we are always going to be the winners in what ostensibly is a conflict in life. We will not be over-powered by the illusion of evil.
 A famous French philosopher named Simone Weil once put it this way: “God’s love for us is not the reason for which we should love him. God’s love for us is the reason for us to love ourselves.”
When we believe that Weil’s statement is true, the possibilities for transformative love become far greater than any conditional love realities. And we cease to rely on our incomplete perceptions of the world surrounding us. We begin to use our lives in the practice of good despite the presence of perceived evil. Take the time to do all of the little kind acts that you possibly can because you must love yourself so much that you see everyone else as an expression in you.
Thought for the writing: Romans 8: 23-29
|
Latest Posts
Archive
 |
|
