Sometimes our faith seems a...
Illustration
Sometimes our faith seems a strange paradox, as this description of God at work among the people of Israel in Egypt:
For by the same means by which thou didst punish our enemies thou didst call us to thyself and glorify us. For in secret the holy children of good men offered sacrifices, and with one accord agreed to the divine law, that the saints would share alike the same things, both blessings and dangers.
God comes to us, as to them, in positive and negative ways alike.
I have often been told that when one first turns to God, one is greeted with brilliant Yes answers to prayers. For a long time, that was true for me. But then, when he had you hooked, he starts to say No. This has, indeed, been my experience. But it is more than a No answer lately; after all, No is an answer. It is the silence, the withdrawal, which is so devastating. The world is difficult enough with God; without him it is a hideous joke.
*Madeleine L'Engle, The Irrational Season, Seabury, 1977, p. 173.
For by the same means by which thou didst punish our enemies thou didst call us to thyself and glorify us. For in secret the holy children of good men offered sacrifices, and with one accord agreed to the divine law, that the saints would share alike the same things, both blessings and dangers.
God comes to us, as to them, in positive and negative ways alike.
I have often been told that when one first turns to God, one is greeted with brilliant Yes answers to prayers. For a long time, that was true for me. But then, when he had you hooked, he starts to say No. This has, indeed, been my experience. But it is more than a No answer lately; after all, No is an answer. It is the silence, the withdrawal, which is so devastating. The world is difficult enough with God; without him it is a hideous joke.
*Madeleine L'Engle, The Irrational Season, Seabury, 1977, p. 173.
