Wednesday, November 04, 2009

What Do I Deserve?


I am just returning to normal health after a week of battling a nasty flu bug. (Not the H1N1 according to the symptom checker.) This one started last Wednesday with a sore throat then morphed into fever and a wicked headache followed by a day of steady vomiting and ended with a few days of chest congestion, runny nose and relentless coughing, all in all not a nice week. There is nothing like a little dose of the flu to get me thinking about how much I take for granted my usual good health. I don’t do sick well, I’m a bad patient, I just feel that there should be some sort of Star Trek(y) type of hypo-spray thingy that fixes me instantly by now – I mean what are we doing with all that research money anyway? I digress.




To my point - and yes I know this is infantile - at one point in the week I recall rolling over in bed and in my misery complaining/praying/whining to God; “What did I do to deserve this?”
This is what I would like to hear from you on:


Do people get what they deserve? Do we all deserve good health? Does anyone ever deserve anything bad? What about people who have done horrific things – what do they deserve? To those of you who are believers – what part does God play in all of this? Is there any justice and if so, how and when do we see it?

 



2 comments:

Thoughtmocker said...

Would you be offended if even through judgement and a purifying fire that Justice meant total Reconciliation?

Do i even deserve the very breath that i breathe?

See to me Justice on a earthly level is 100% subjective... and how that is defined by one does not mean it is the same for another ie. A victim's perspective may be different from somoene who cannot relate to the offence.

But lets look at something that made you yawn in one of your previous posts(paraphrase)Fair Trade... By definition Justice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, fairness, or equity.... so by glazing over issues like fair trade,slavery, poverty etc... it might be fair to say that you are in denial of justice(at a certian level and i realize i am taking Libreties here)but to engage in fair trade practices would in fact be a sign of Justice in word thought and deed. I think we all define justice and look at scripture through that lens even(the picture that comes in my mind right now for example is a old english judge with a white haired wig on holding his hammer in place)you see that may not be the right way to look at justice but somewhere that image is how i typically relate to God and scripture on these issues
...Im not at a complete loss at what justice is and what it looks like but at the same time im not sure i can box it up and say: this is what it is and what it will be.

Dan Cormie said...

TMocker said: "Justice on a earthly level is 100% subjective... and how that is defined by one does not mean it is the same for another ie. A victim's perspective may be different from somoene who cannot relate to the offence."

I agree completely with this idea which is why I believe God has commanded us to forgive everyone (even our enemies)and leave the judgment to Him.

Our sins are forgiven but they are not left undealt with - Jesus has taken the Lord's justice for us on the cross.

As far as the fair trade thing goes I am not saying that this is not a valid and important issue - it may even be that it is a great way for Christans to show gratitude for what God has done for us in Christ - my point is that as an issue it a poor substitute for the gospel as far as holding ones attention goes.