The man said he could not understand why God allows suffering, war, and disease.
I agreed that the ways of God are often a mystery to us.
He declared that He could not put his faith in a God who did not make a greater effort to be understood.
So I asked the man how well he was doing at flying. “In an airplane?” he queried. “No, by flapping your arms,” I replied. He frowned, mocking my ridiculous question.
Again I asked, “How is your deep sea diving coming along?” He replied, “I’ve never learned how, nor do I have the equipment.” I explained that I wasn’t talking about scuba diving but about plying the deep waters like a shark or whale.
Disdaining my stupidity, the man made moves to leave the conversation. So I concluded: “Since you accept the fact that your body has neither the ability to fly like a bird nor dive like a whale, why can you not accept the fact that your brain cannot fathom the depths of God’s mind?”
He stared, unconvinced.
“We live on a planet that is a small speck in a universe of galaxies. Yet we cannot prevent countries from fighting each other. We cannot even keep our citizens from shooting each other. Do you really want to blame the God of the universe for our dysfunction? And more than that, would you really want to put your faith in a God who is no more intelligent than the human mind? For that is what you are requesting when you complain that God cannot be understood.”
He walked away, little realizing that he was at a crucial fork in the road that might not ever appear again.
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