Faith in...?

On the way home, I passed a church with a nice big sign with the message, "Faith is trusting God, even when questions go unanswered."

That's the problem with faith.  Theologians and Sunday school classes wrestle with reality, in a literal sense.  They look at the world around them, and find convoluted ways to convince themselves that faith is warranted, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

Faith in what, anyway?  That in spite of all their troubles, there is a loving God who cares for them?  Or that after their hard travails on earth, God will take care of them at last, leading them to heaven?

A friend of mine came down with a mysterious-sounding disease, some sort of infection of the spine.  She was out of work for months, and we wondered if she would ever recover.  Finally, she did, and on returning to work, she was aglow, and said to me, "To God goes the glory!"

One often sees news stories of devastation from natural disasters, homes destroyed, loss of life, and in the middle of the ruins of a home, the owner will say, "God is merciful.  Praise the Lord!"  Naturally, the person is happy to be alive, but what about all the others who aren't?  What about the bringer of the destruction?

And prayer is the most unpredictable of endeavors.  Whenever someone becomes deathly ill, their friends pray for them.  Sometimes they get well, sometimes they don't.  When they do, God is praised.  When they don't, the rationalizations begin.  (And as we know from an earlier lesson, God is unable or unwilling to regrow severed limbs, casting suspicion on all the other things prayer is given credit for healing.)

The believers go on trying to make sense of it, to convince themselves of God's goodness in the face of misery.

I don't believe in God, but if I'm wrong and there is one, It (how could we know if It had any gender or any kind of human attributes?), on the basis of what we see around us, is surely the most impersonal of beings.  We live in a beautiful world, an abundant world, but none of us knows that some accident or illness or other disaster won't snuff us out an instant from now.

Of course, we're grateful every moment we're alive, but I wouldn't bother this God about it, because It is not paying attention.