Pastor's Corner

On a recent Sunday during worship we play a game called Snowballs. It’s a game I have played in Confirmation to encourage people to ask their God questions.

The congregation each wrote their questions on a piece of paper, wadded it up to resemble a snowball and then had a “snowball fight.” It was great fun with lots of giggles. The snowballs were collected up by Katie Leid, passed out again in their wadded-up shape.

Three people read the questions they had picked out of the basket. They read the questions of others, not their own questions.

The questions were about what is known as the problem of evil. Why does God let bad things happen to good people? The three questions were variations of this question.

The Problem of Evil asks why God doesn’t intervene when bad things happen to us. Why, when we pray, does it seem like some prayers are answered and some not? My thinking is that we have free will. We are not puppets on strings manipulated by God.

I believe that God puts people in our lives who have the potential to help us. It’s up to us to pay attention, to notice that working of the Holy Spirit.

God isn’t playing with us. God is in our lives all the time. God is the first to grieve when bad things happen.

Jesus teaches us to love God with our whole hearts, our whole mind and our whole soul, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Knowing this God-sized love can help us to shape our lives in hope, peace, love and joy and to be that love for others. That way we are helping others when they encounter the problem of evil and they help us, too.

Rev. Deborah Tyler

First Congregational Church, U.C.C.

Dayton