I Knew I Should Have Prayed Harder
Over at Volokh Conspiracy, David Bernstein had the following post:

I've noticed that Americans have a tendency to publicly attribute any success they have had--anything ranging from winning a Little League playoff game to winning the lottery--to God's intervention on their behalf. But I haven't noticed a countervailing tendency to blame God when things go wrong, an especially annoying defect in the sports world, where victories are freely attributed to Jesus's blessings. If God wanted the Marlins to win the World Series, doesn't that mean he wanted the Yankees to lose? Just once, I'd like to see the losing Super Bowl quarterback tell the media "Guess Jesus really had it in for me today." Emphasis mine.

To which I say, Amen! We have this sad tendency to use victories or "blessings" as a "See how much God loves me" promotion. We don't blame God for bad things happening to us.

Which is why the Old Testament is so powerful. It does see the whole work of God- when we are blessed and when we are in trouble, when things go our way, and when they go down to tubes. It is a tough idea to come to, but to see God at work in all that happens- all that happens- can be a big jump in thinking, but an essential one.

Terrorism Defense
Interesting information is now coming out on what the government has been looking for in terrorism defense. Yes, it is a different world, but I hope it does not become one in which we become so paranoid that we cease to enjoy life. But I am also glad that the government has some idea about what to look for.

But On the Other Hand
But does God cause evil things to happen? Like the terrorism? The Gutless Pacifist has dealt with this along with Richard's help.

I do not believe that God made 9-11 happen, anymore than I believe that God gives AIDS to homosexuals or CJD to meateaters. Bad stuff happens. Sometimes by accident, sometimes by evil design but never (NEVER!) because God has a purpose. Did those thousands die in New York to teach the USA a lesson, or were the tens of thousands in Bam merely God's instruments to show Iran the superiority of Western democracy? No they were not - and it would be perverse to claim otherwise.

Which is not to say that lessons cannot be learned and purpose found in and through suffering. It is our response to tragedy and suffering by which we learn and through which God's will is obeyed. "Why did God allow this?" is a natural, but misleading question. "Where is God in this?" is better because its answer is always the same - right there in the chaos, hurt and mess of our world.

In all this we can see the difficulty with all the many different ways of interpreting the events in our world. Where's God? Why God? Does God care? Is God able to stop bad things? Why doesn't He? Especially for me. Maybe he has a greater plan so if we only knew it all we wold understand. It is one of the problems of being human.

In the end, I feel that God wants us to take some responsibility for our lives and the things we can have control in. In the end, Richard is right. No matter what, my direction is to look for God in the midst of my life. God hasn't gone anywhere. It's the rest of us who move away.