Nicole’s e-Pistle

January 22, 2025

Greetings, friends!

I am going to try something a little different over the next six weeks, and I shall endeavor not to break any copyright laws in the process. I have begun reading a book by Thomas Long entitled What Shall We Say? – Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith. I know that sounds ominous and perhaps better suited to a 40-day celebration of Lent, but I hope you’ll bear with me.

One of my most difficult and most interesting classes in seminary was Christian Ethics. Now, as a former teacher, “ethics” was a training that one had to take each year to know what to do and what not to do to stay out of trouble. For example, educational ethics said to never meet privately with a student in one’s classroom with the door closed. That meant no after-school tutoring sessions with a single student unless we met in a public area like the media center or in a neighboring teacher’s room, so long as that teacher stayed after as well.

However, Christian ethics deals with the questions that arise about who God is considering the existence of evil and suffering in the world. In the first chapter of his aforementioned book, Long takes the reader on a historical trip through time in regard to the question of theodicy, or the defense of God’s goodness and omnipotence in view of the existence of evil (Miriam-Webster.com). Through the Middle Ages, everything that happened in the world, good and bad, was at the hand of God (Providence). The Black Plague, for example, was understood to be God’s punishment for the sins of mankind. However, with the emergence of the Enlightenment and the discovery of Natural Law (later called science), people began to question whether there was in fact a Divine Architect after all, and if there was, could he truly be good?

Long describes Providence (God enacting his will in the world) in two ways. “If your architect neighbor comes to rescue you from your collapsing house in the middle of a gale, that’s particular providence. If your architect friend doesn’t have to come to rescue you because he has engineered your house to withstand the storm, that’s general providence” (Long, pg. 10). The question remains, however, of what comfort is this to the person whose house indeed falls?… to the person whose loved one dies in the rubble?… to those who have lost everything?

I am thinking, among other things, of the fires in California, the 2024 hurricanes in the Southeast, and countless other catastrophes happening in our world. While my instinct is to instantly look for silver lining, I know all too well the need for – and indeed the healing and comforting properties of – lament. I hope you will take a little time with me in the next few weeks to dig a little deeper into who God is in the face of hardship and trials. I promise, we will indeed find the silver lining in the end, one that is stronger and brighter than you might think…

Will you walk this journey with me?

Love and peace to you all,