Indianapolis, IN
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This report comes to us from team leader Beth with our National SPSE team in Warren, MI:
At the National Eucharistic Congress, I was walking the route of the Eucharist procession just to get a lay of the land. In the park area there was a woman sitting by herself at a checkerboard, set up and ready to play. I gave her a friendly smile and she asked would you like to play checkers? I sat down and we started to play, but as so often with me, the conversation quickly turned to our Faith life. I was wearing my Conference credentials around my neck with a badge that said “evangelist,“ so I don’t think she was surprised by the turn in the conversation. I asked her if she was Christian and she couldn’t give me an answer so I backed up a bit and asked, “do you believe in God?” Even then, she waffled on the answer. So I asked her to tell me her story. She grew up as a pastor’s daughter in a Fundamentalist Protestant church. Although she’s pretty sure there is a God, she wants nothing to do with religion. Then she told me how people in her life have used God/the Bible as a weapon. She continued her stories, and it became clear she had a very distorted version of God and Christianity. Somehow, she believed that her only role was to be pure and completely obedient to her husband, no matter what he asked of her. And no matter what he himself did. And when he strayed or treated her terribly, it was always her fault because she never fully submitted to him the way it says in the Bible. So she believes this distorted image of God that demanded perfection and abandoned her if she didn’t give it to him. No wonder she didn’t trust God.
She said “why would a good God allow terrible things to happen? Where was God when my husband beat me up and left me on the street?” The problem of evil is a difficult one when speaking with someone who is so wounded. The men in her life continued to blame her. Her Bible friends had already told her all of the pat answers from scripture-God’s ways are not our ways, etc. None of this removed the pain or made sense.
Since she was quoting scripture, I went with Romans, 8:28 – “In everything God works for good with those who love him.” When she asked, “where was Jesus while these terrible things were happening?” I told her Jesus was right there with her on the street, suffering with her. And although she can’t see it now, I do believe God can make something good come from it. I admitted that I don’t know how. It makes no sense to us now, but by faith I do believe God can work good out of it.
I talked a little bit about free will … that God gives us the choice to love or to turn away from love. We aren’t robots, we can choose the bad.
As our conversation progressed I tried to remind her that God is good and understands the terrible pain she suffered, and He will patiently walk with her however long it takes for her to regain that trust and relationship. Interestingly, she began to tell me about her new dog – it was a breeder dog she adopted. That means the dog spent her life in a cage and was abused. She was used for breeding, and would be let out to give birth, but then would be forced to return to her prison. Her new canine friend was terrified of life, anxious of noises and any sudden movements. After all, she’d spent her life confined to a small crate. The woman told me slowly how she had to earn the dog’s trust. I told her that’s a beautiful thing she’s doing, and inside I’m thinking, “That’s EXACTLY what’s going on with her and God!”
Praised be Jesus Christ!