Amen my friend.

I've been suggesting the play_at_home_mummy and growingupgriffith instagrams for my friends who are running out of ideas with the kiddos.

it's not much, but I hope maybe that is helpful.

My problems are so beyond first world compared to so many people. I don't want to complain. I'm stressed too and I hate how trigger sensitive people are right now because how stressed we all are.

I'm worried and I'm a little heartbroken that i feel like I've just barely missed another good job opportunity because of all of this. My family is stressed and I'm super worried that my brother who is a paramedic with asthma is going to get sick.

it's frustrating that I finally have weekends and time off (lol) and I cant do anything with anyone with it.

I think like everyone, the uncertainty about the future is just weighing heavy.

So I didnt want to complain but I did anyway.

Emailed you a Charlie picture. All is good.

Looks like this extends through April.

I'm worried about my dad. He is healthy for his age, 88 but this past November complications from the flu put him in the hospital for a few days so of course I'm more concerned than if he did not have that spell.. While it would be nice to go to mass during this time, for his sake it is probably for the best. No way any of us "kids" would be able to convince him it would be OK to miss Sunday mass, especially since he likes to go daily.

Work wise things are good, so at least for now I'm still getting a paycheck.

The petty thing I have to complain about is no Fightin' Texas Aggie baseball or any baseball what so ever.

I forgot we were going to play sippie tonight.

HE'S SO HANDSOME!

Excitable boy. And chin up. We are alive, we know the Lord, and God is on the throne.

I know. Wish my dog was still here with me through it though. Thank you

Thankful that my family and friends are healthy. Thankful for still having a paycheck. Heart broken for those that are sick or lost their jobs.

Grateful that our company salary reduction is only 10%.

Re: that virtual potluck? Totally cringeworthy with people coughing, exhibiting bad table manners, etc.

IOW, just like the real thing.

diehard03 said:

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Grateful that our company salary reduction is only 10%.

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We had a salary reduction as well, I'm hoping that suffices and prevents layoffs.

I should be thankful that my employer is wanting to keep us employed and giving us at least something during this time. I'm struggling with being graceful about the mandatory morning zoom trainings and the new zendesk system where we will be calling brides... and how my hourly pay doesn't actually seem worth it.I should be grateful, but I was burnt out before all of this started..and I was okay with getting a break. Meaningless busy work every day is beyond frustrating to me.

I know everyone here means well and doesn't want any suffering, but how do you justify everything. The prayers asks for help and mercy but isn't god in control of the virus. Didn't he create everything? Similar to other famine, war, plagues, cancers that have gone on for millennia god has a hand in it. And everyone here is ok with that.

Now we can use the Holocaust joke for corona virus. Man dies and goes to heaven. Sees god and tells him a coronavirus joke. God says, "Coronavirus jokes aren't funny." Man says, "Guess you had to be there."

I know I'm in the wrong place for this and I'm truly not trying to start anything, but I can't come to terms with these situations and passing it off as gods plan. If this is his plan, along with all of the other heinous things that go on, and he has the power to stop it but won't, why would you want to associate with that.

Stay safe.

AgZoidberg said:

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I know everyone here means well and doesn't want any suffering, but how do you justify everything. The prayers asks for help and mercy but isn't god in control of the virus. Didn't he create everything? Similar to other famine, war, plagues, cancers that have gone on for millennia god has a hand in it. And everyone here is ok with that.

Now we can use the Holocaust joke for corona virus. Man dies and goes to heaven. Sees god and tells him a coronavirus joke. God says, "Coronavirus jokes aren't funny." Man says, "Guess you had to be there."

I know I'm in the wrong place for this and I'm truly not trying to start anything, but I can't come to terms with these situations and passing it off as gods plan. If this is his plan, along with all of the other heinous things that go on, and he has the power to stop it but won't, why would you want to associate with that.

Stay safe.

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With all due respect, it may be worthwhile to consider this from a different viewpoint.
First, I propose that God made man for fellowship with him and placed mankind in a perfect physical environment. Secondly, I propose that a malignant entity corrupted that relationship and evil came into the world because man chose to believe the lies of that malignant entity. Man and nature were corrupted by that choice. The natural order created by God became malevolent in its interrelationships, including viruses and bacteria. To restore His Creation, God sent His son to die as a sacrifice to atone for man's sin and eventually to restore Creation itself. What you see played out in every Christian's life is the redemptive work of the Cross, redeeming us and changing us to be more like Jesus. But we still live in a Creation that is yet to be fully redeemed and have to act accordingly.

Don't think about "fair" or "just" in your own personal terms.

Justice and Mercy met at the Cross and grace is offered to all who will submit their lives to Jesus Christ. God has given us what we need to survive if we will only heed both His Word and the physical laws he has put in place. And He still performs miracles and healing.

So he went from an involved diety in the Old Testament to a side line player after Jesus showed up.
Again, god is all powerful to stop malignant forces, but chooses not to. Kids dying of cancer everyday and god is just on the sidelines. "Follow my playbook and you'll be alright. My bad about all that corona virus stuff and that it wasn't just from your perspective."

AgZoidberg said:

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So he went from an involved diety in the Old Testament to a side line player after Jesus showed up.
Again, god is all powerful to stop malignant forces, but chooses not to. Kids dying of cancer everyday and god is just on the sidelines. "Follow my playbook and you'll be alright. My bad about all that corona virus stuff and that it wasn't just from your perspective."

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He was never a sideline deity. But he won't come in uninvited. If your parents tell you not to touch a hot stove (laws of physics) and you disregard them intentionally...well you know the result. And human beings are very much like that. We are very prone to sin in all its forms, carnality, selfishness. The question before me is this: am I attentive to what God wants? Do I see His hand of blessing in my life? Am I able to stop turning inward and instead seek Him? Do I even dare ask Him to lift me up from doubt and seeming despair? Caveat: if you have had a negative church experience then grace to you. That is sometimes so difficult to work through.
But it does not change who God is, nor does it change His willingness to reach out to His earthly children. God constantly sought for Israel to return to Him. But they killed His prophets and rejected the notion that God's justice demanded that those who violate his laws must see the results.

A couple of weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote two verses of a song for compline. A couple of nights later, I wrote three more verses. I can't sing and don't know how to write music, but I think I had the tune and cadence of "Red River Valley" in my head at the time. Your last post reminded me of it.

A Song for Compline

Can we rest in your arms tonight, Jesus?
Will You hide us from all we've done wrong?
Will You cleanse us and clothe us and feed us?
And on that morning will You please lead us home?

I've come to the end of my runnin',
I've worn myself out in the race,
I can't save myself and I'm done in,
So I'll pray for Your mercy and grace.

I still do some things that I shouldn't,
I don't do some things that I should,
I tried to do right but I couldn't,
So I now pray that You'll make me good.

The best thing I've learned is to trust You,
I'm not very good with the rest
Of the things that we're taught that we must do,
Without You I'll fail every test.

So we'll rest in Your arms tonight, Jesus,
We'll trust You to wipe out our wrongs,
To cleanse us and clothe us and feed us,
And on that morning to please lead us home.

Words: LonghornDub
Music: ?

I know it sounds like I grew up outside of one of the wrong sides of Waco in the '40's and '50's. I did.

I love it. I quit trying to understand everything and am just trusting and resting in the Lord.

dermdoc said:

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I love it. I quit trying to understand everything and am just trusting and resting in the Lord.

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Amen

ramblin_ag02 said:

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AgZoidberg said:

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I know everyone here means well and doesn't want any suffering, but how do you justify everything. The prayers asks for help and mercy but isn't god in control of the virus. Didn't he create everything? Similar to other famine, war, plagues, cancers that have gone on for millennia god has a hand in it. And everyone here is ok with that.

Now we can use the Holocaust joke for corona virus. Man dies and goes to heaven. Sees god and tells him a coronavirus joke. God says, "Coronavirus jokes aren't funny." Man says, "Guess you had to be there."

I know I'm in the wrong place for this and I'm truly not trying to start anything, but I can't come to terms with these situations and passing it off as gods plan. If this is his plan, along with all of the other heinous things that go on, and he has the power to stop it but won't, why would you want to associate with that.

Stay safe.

---

I get you. But regardless of God or not, evil happens anyway. People suffer regardless. It's an inescapable fact of life. So you are left with basically two viewpoints

First, you could say there is no God. We are a cosmic lucky break, our existence is accidental, and our lives, joys, plans, suffering all have no greater meaning. We can make our own meaning, but it's just shouting into the hurricane of cosmic randomness and indifference. Suffering in this context is meaningless and just the natural result of the relentless grind of universal forces.

Alternatively, you could there is a God. Our universe and our lives have a purpose and a meaning greater than the meaning we give them. There is an inherent value to our lives and our beings. Yes, suffering exists and God allows it. But if God is good, then even suffering exists for a good reason. Further, since suffering itself is bad, then there must be a really, really good and necessary reason for God to continue allowing it.

At the end, the facts are the same. People suffer and die. So what sits better with you? A callous and indifferent universe where the suffering is haphazard and meaningless, or a loving God where the suffering is necessary, and meaningful, and helps achieves an ultimate good?

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Good post.

ramblin_ag02 said:

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AgZoidberg said:

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I know everyone here means well and doesn't want any suffering, but how do you justify everything. The prayers asks for help and mercy but isn't god in control of the virus. Didn't he create everything? Similar to other famine, war, plagues, cancers that have gone on for millennia god has a hand in it. And everyone here is ok with that.

Now we can use the Holocaust joke for corona virus. Man dies and goes to heaven. Sees god and tells him a coronavirus joke. God says, "Coronavirus jokes aren't funny." Man says, "Guess you had to be there."

I know I'm in the wrong place for this and I'm truly not trying to start anything, but I can't come to terms with these situations and passing it off as gods plan. If this is his plan, along with all of the other heinous things that go on, and he has the power to stop it but won't, why would you want to associate with that.

Stay safe.

---

I get you. But regardless of God or not, evil happens anyway. People suffer regardless. It's an inescapable fact of life. So you are left with basically two viewpoints

First, you could say there is no God. We are a cosmic lucky break, our existence is accidental, and our lives, joys, plans, suffering all have no greater meaning. We can make our own meaning, but it's just shouting into the hurricane of cosmic randomness and indifference. Suffering in this context is meaningless and just the natural result of the relentless grind of universal forces.

Alternatively, you could there is a God. Our universe and our lives have a purpose and a meaning greater than the meaning we give them. There is an inherent value to our lives and our beings. Yes, suffering exists and God allows it. But if God is good, then even suffering exists for a good reason. Further, since suffering itself is bad, then there must be a really, really good and necessary reason for God to continue allowing it.

At the end, the facts are the same. People suffer and die. So what sits better with you? A callous and indifferent universe where the suffering is haphazard and meaningless, or a loving God where the suffering is necessary, and meaningful, and helps achieves an ultimate good?

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I have met very few atheists or agnostics that believe this. Nihilism just isn't very popular for some reason.

Maybe I'm just narrow-minded, but I can't think of any atheistic worldview that doesn't logically and necessarily lead to nihilism on a grand scale. Best case scenario on a small scale is humanism or utilitarianism, but neither of those help when it comes to cosmic scale questions. It pretty much boils down to the strong or weak anthropic principles without a lot of wiggle room. Either the universe was designed or it was accidental.

Agnosticism makes more sense, because it's just an admission of ignorance. But discussions with agnostics tends to get one-sided, because only the believer really has anything to add to the conversation aside from criticism.

ramblin_ag02 said:

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Maybe I'm just narrow-minded, but I can't think of any atheistic worldview that doesn't logically and necessarily lead to nihilism on a grand scale. Best case scenario on a small scale is humanism or utilitarianism, but neither of those help when it comes to cosmic scale questions. It pretty much boils down to the strong or weak anthropic principles without a lot of wiggle room. Either the universe was designed or it was accidental.

Agnosticism makes more sense, because it's just an admission of ignorance. But discussions with agnostics tends to get one-sided, because only the believer really has anything to add to the conversation aside from criticism.

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Nevermind. I misread your post. Carry on.

AstroAg17 said:

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ramblin_ag02 said:

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But if God is good, then even suffering exists for a good reason. Further, since suffering itself is bad, then there must be a really, really good and necessary reason for God to continue allowing it.

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This line of reason does not make sense to me. Omnipotence is inconsistent with the need to compromise. The idea that the existence of evil is the only way to some greater good is either unsound, or God is in some way limited.

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Sorry, this turned out long...

It's the "could God create a burrito so hot even He couldn't eat it?" scenario played out as a fundamental part of our existence. Jesus specifically says that loving those who hate you is a greater good than loving those who love you. Now God is good, maximally good such that anything we think of as gradations of good are gradations of how much is shared with God. Platonic goodness if you will. God is also omnipresent, and His Will is what allows everything to exist.

All that said, God is also love. The best description if the Trinity I've ever heard is the completeness of shared love. However, God can't hate Himself. God is goodness and love, and He can't make Himself hate goodness and love. It's entirely against His nature. So even in the Trinity, His goodness is not as maximal as it could be.

So God can't hate Himself, but He needs to love someone who hates Him to be maximally good. He could create people who hate Him by default and must hate him, but that would not be the act of a good creator. People who can only hate goodness and love are completely and unalterably evil, and a good creator would not create such things, the existence of mosquitos notwithstanding.

But what a good creator can do is create people who have the potential to hate Him or love Him. He can give them agency and allow them to freely choose for themselves. Then some will love Him and that is good. Others will hate him, and His love for them exemplifies His maximal goodness.

So now to get to your actual question. How do you get a situation where some people love God and others hate Him? Look around, because that's what we have. Suffering, misfortune, temptation, jealousy, injustice, all created to give people reasons to hate God. All so that God and those who love Him can demonstrate the maximal goodness of loving those who hate Him and us. So things we consider evil ultimately designed and created to serve maximal goodness

AstroAg17 said:

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ramblin_ag02 said:

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But if God is good, then even suffering exists for a good reason. Further, since suffering itself is bad, then there must be a really, really good and necessary reason for God to continue allowing it.

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This line of reason does not make sense to me. Omnipotence is inconsistent with the need to compromise. The idea that the existence of evil is the only way to some greater good is either unsound, or God is in some way limited.

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How so? And it's not the only way. Jesus rising from the dead was good in itself and also for a greater good. Jesus dying on the cross was evil in itself, but also for the greater good.

Suffering is meant to refine us.

Rom. 5:3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance

1 Pet. 1:6-7 you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faithmore precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire

Well...it became official today.

The school that was attached to my Church official announced it's closing. It was likely to fail either way, but COVID-19 moved the timeline up.

Prayers are certainly needed for the faculty and students as they are now in limbo so late in planning for the next school year.