Question about Mysterious Pain
A reader writes:Here’s a theological question if you need blog material. I have had a pinched nerve in my hip for 5 years. Recently it just stopped hurting. Did the Lord bless me with this, and, if so, why, since I am not at all a good Christian and there are good Christians out there with much bigger problems, e.g. the good Christians in the Middle East. Or did I just get lucky? Sister Mary Martha says there ain’t no such thing as luck as far as Christians are concerned. What say you?Given that all the hairs of your head are numbered and no sparrow falls without your Father knowing it, we can safely say that it was not mere luck (in the sense that it happened apart from God’s Providence). Indeed, one of the curious things that our faith says is that God, in his mysterious providence, uses what we call “chance” in his Providential designs. So, for instance, a prophet warns bad king Ahab that God is going to punish him with death. He goes into battle in disguised to avoid being a target and “by chance” a bowman shoots him, fulfilling prophecy. So chance is be part of Providence. (This is why pitting “chance” against God’s creative will in evolution is silly.) Chance means, at most, “order we don’t understand”. There is nothing outside God’s providential will.As to *why* God willed/permitted this? Beats me. Might be something to talk with him about in prayer. Meanwhile, thanks be to God you are better.
