That’s good / that’s bad

There’s an old Chinese story about a man who lived in a village with his son and their beautiful horse. One day the horse ran off, and everyone said “oh, too bad.”

The man said, “we’ll see.”

The next day, the man’s son caught the horse and the 20 wild horses it was with. Everyone said, “oh, how wonderful!” but the old man just said, “we’ll see.”

The following day, the son broke both of his legs when he was trying to break the horses. Everyone said, “that’s horrible!” and of course the old man said “we’ll see.”

On the next day, a representative of the emperor came and called all the able bodied young men to war. Seeing that the old man would not lose his son to battle, the villagers said, “you are so fortunate!”

You probably get where this is going, vis-à-vis the old man.

So we don’t know what the future holds, but we all have examples of how tragedy has been transformed into redemption. That it can be, and so often is, transformed is at the root of my belief in God. If my faith were stronger, I’d be able to look at any situation without despair, knowing that no situation is beyond God’s redemption. There’s always hope. That does not mean, however, that there is always a plan. I’ve gotten confused by that in the past. I’ve wanted to think that something horrible that’s happened was a part of a larger plan for redemption, something that was beyond my comprehension. The problem with this is not only that it turns God into a sadistic teacher, it removes the possibility that some people are assholes.

God’s love not only provides a way of transformation, it allows us to choose transformation. (And as a subject for future discussion, I’ll state my belief that this choice does not necessitate a belief in God.) I suppose it is theoretically possible for the God in whom I believe to compel belief and compliance from all of humanity, but where’s the love in that? Instead, we each have a choice to make. Not all of us choose wisely. If there is a plan, if we have no choice, then we wind up trapped like Richard Mourdock, saying ridiculous things like “God intends that [pregnancy as a result of rape] to happen.”
I’m unwilling to believe in a God that intends for rape to happen. What I do believe is that God loves victims of rape, sexual assault, domestic violence and abuse. I believe that even in these situations there is hope. For some, that hope may lay in the fact that they will not have to continue a pregnancy which was forced upon them. Others’ hope may be that new life can be beautiful, even if it is conceived in violence. I’m sure God can work with either one. I’m also sure God’s not out there making work for himself.