Fire on the Mountain

[create_destiny]

It never rains in Chico in the summer. Except last Saturday when it rained very briefly. I was at a backyard bar-be-que when fat drops plopped in the dust. We were talking about the floods in Iowa, the fires and drought in California when it happened. Someone said Mother Nature's pissed. I said, She's a Republican. Just look at the unequal distribution of resources.



The day I took the above photo, more than 1000 wildfires were sparked by dry lightning storms. One week later these fires are still burning. I am near the center of the thickest smoke seen in the photo below. The red squares indicate the biggest fires. I have monk-friends who live in the Shasta-Trinity wilderness. Their beloved monastery is in danger and they have evacuated, taking ancient icons and encased slivers of Saint's bones with them.



At night I pray to the same God who left a toddler locked in an apartment with his dead mother for seven days. I pray mercy, mercy, light. Something unseen prevents me from going too deep into the why of it all. Otherwise I would grab God by the throat and say, Today, you will be judged by the condemned. As it is, I lie low in patches of grace.

Comments

[somethinghead.livejournal.com]

The "senseless anger" was originally directed towards God, not you. You chose to intervene on His part. God can stand up for himself, can't he? And why is it senseless to feel anger and pain over tragedy in the world? Simple unquestioned obedience does should not make a person more righteous than someone who wrestles with his or her faith and chooses to ask the difficult questions.

Rather than showing sympathy towards someone who is feeling pain over injustices in the world, you've taken up a soapbox. This does not provide comfort, but rather intensifies pain and isolation. It's an "I told you so" at an inappropriate moment. It is possible to reconcile personal faith with social concern without becoming self-righteous.

createdestiny I'm sorry if I've overstepped my bounds here, but this exchange bothered me.

[createdestiny.livejournal.com]

No, you haven't overstepped your bounds. I was holding off because this person is very young and also a recovering Protestant (which explains the soapbox).

[yasue.livejournal.com]

You're right in that I should not have gotten frustrated. I honestly was trying to help however. I guess what upset me about it (and I'm really directing this at you now createddestiny) is that I know God doesn't deserve the blame, but satan, and that he- satan- is winning when she blames God. Because he wants us to direct our anger at God. It causes a separation between us and God which opens a way for more evil.
On top of that, I used to be frustrated at God for a certain aspect of salvation. I asked Him to help me understand. It took years, but at the right time, He did reveal the truth to me and I saw that I was at fault and I had a totally warped view of Him in the first place (that was when I came to Orthodoxy).
Anyway, I hope this comment helps explain where I was coming from.