Thoughts from a Passive Observer

There was a family filled with unending, incomprehensible trauma. One cycle followed the other with greater intensity; trauma after trauma was inflicted on the family members with the ending results being a lifetime of guilt and oppression. I knew the family well but only after the children were pretty well grown. After they had gotten to know me well some of them were comfortable enough to talk to me. I watched, knowing what had happened to them, and with a great amount of sorrow I tried to speak my concern. It was a concern of a twenty two year old kid then, and it held exactly that much weight. I was a passive observer to disaster.

Passively observing I wept.

Issues of mental health, issues of child molestation, issues of violent rages all inflicting their miserable soul-killing frustration on the family. Days passed into months and months into years; now I am almost twice the age I was then and I still see the ruins of hope for happiness lying in shambles around their lives. Fear has overwhelmed.

Mental disease and molestation and violence have become an unwelcome portion of their lifestyle. It is in their dreams and their adult relationships. Testing and twisting new relationships out of sorts. It draws the strength inexorably from those around and grows worries and fears within loved ones. This pain is as virulent as the bubonic plague. It is an ugly as hurtful as it can get. The offender is now long dead. His lips do not speak deception and intensity anymore. His psyche does not rape anymore. His temper cannot volcano anymore. His sins carry all of his evil now. (see picture above, left)

Passively observing I weep.

I could have become more aggressive, and become interfering. However I would have been shouted down. I would have been ostracized and ultimately shunned, and the good that I would have done would have melted into a puddle of deeper sorrow. Humans bent on evil and family members bent on love are the most tenacious defenders of the status quo. Better the devil you know…

I recognize that God is capable of “laying down the law”. He could simply do away with the piece of trash human and set things aright. He could adjust the brainwave patterns. He could antabuse the offender. But that is not what happens. God seems to passively observe. Helping when He can. Teaching when He can. Being a confidant when He can. Being a friend and father to those who will let Him.

Your god sounds like a kindly old gentleman in an old-folks home. He can't really help anyone, can't really accomplish anything, but he tries -- "when he can". Listen to that! "When he can..."! Let's hear it for this nice, old god... he's trying! Maybe he'll give you his shoulder to cry on, "when he can"!

Never let it be said I cannot be unclear, but also never let it be said I will not try to be clearer. God acts when He can, and when he has to (can I hear a testimony brother Jonah).

And who is this "peice of trash human"?! God could "do away" with him and "set things right"? Your god sounds like a Nazi, only Hitler at least had the balls to DO something, rather than sit by and lamely watch the "trash" muck up the world.

I think God has a desire to interfere as little as possible with the ways of man He does not wish to look like a bully like Satan ( do I have a testimony brother Job?)

Why not SAVE the poor guy? Isn't that what God is supposed to be doing with the lost? I thought he came "to seek and to save", not "seek and destroy".

Their rebellion was what caused them to be lost in the first place. If they continue in their rebellion is God obligated to save them?

It really sounds like your trying to make excuses for why, as you say, "God seems to passively observe." I agree that it seems that way, but I reject your explanation.

I've known people like the one you describe, as you may know. I would prefer to believe that when they are released from their flawed mind, which contorted and constricted their thoughts, they find themselves finally able to see things as they really are and with the shakles off they are able to commune with God and find peace.

If a person is born with a flawed brain -- with chemical imbalances or what have you -- that make it virtually inevitable that he will fail in life, who's really responsible for his actions? That is a hard, but very important, question that Christianity has tried to brush off for 2000 years.

This is a large question, one that is specific to each case as well as trying to devine what is God's responsibility to his creation or his children. I don't think it is "brushed off" as much as it is impossible to answer in general terms.

Who is responsible for the path that a train takes? The man who sits in the engine, or the one who laid down the tracks?

And the truth is that we are ALL born with flawed brains. The flaws work like deep-worn grooves that are impossible for us to escape on our own. That's where God comes in.

There appears within this behavior a built in “ugly factor” He will look ugly ( see picture to the left) if He interferes and ugly if He doesn’t interfere.

I disagree. Interference from God is a wonderful thing. Would that I saw more of it! And less of the sham that men use to exploit our hopes!

So He chooses the way He sees will do the most good. He passively observes and compassionately responds.

I'm sorry Jerry, if you are "passively observing" you are NOT "compassionately responding". The two are opposites. If I see my brother have need, and "passively observe", what good does it do? None. If I compassionately respond, I am not passive, but active.

I could be wrong, it just seems that way to me.

You could be, and in this case, you are. But I still love you. ;-) Right back at ya kiddo.

I know, you may not wish to think of these things. You may wish to mentally and passively observe.

I hope that all the people who want to bring about good things in this world do not choose to "mentally and passively observe".

Now to a lighter side: The sunsets in Idaho have been marvelously colorful this late winter early spring. Reminding me of my favorite Ziggy cartoon. The sun was rising and Ziggy was admiring the beauty. The sub title read: “Way to go God!” In my thinking lately I have been thinking a lot about praise. Ziggy was praising God with the single exclamation. Giving credit where credit was due. Since praise is so important to God that He “inhabits praise”, maybe praise for one another is important. Maybe praise is part of the answer to some of the SIN in the world. Maybe less fighting will occur if praise replaces it. I was just thinking it would be hard to punch someone in the face who is always telling you about how they admire what you have done or who you are.

While I agree that a beautiful sunrise is a wonderful thing, and smile whenever I see that Ziggy cartoon, I must say that I am conflicted about this. I guess I'm not quite ready to lighten up.

Oh, come on give God a break will ya?

A colorful sunrise is caused by the refraction of the sun's light by billions of drops of water in the air, and helped along by various impurities in the air. It may be somewhat mysterious to you and me, and it may be a complete mystery to some, but it is really no mystery to mankind in general. While I can give God credit for creating a world in which lovely sunrises are possible, I know too much to think that God actively or consiously "creates" each one.

What would you think of a great artist who devotes all his time to creating great works of art while his own children starve to death? Would you praise him for his art? Could you? What if he only occasionally created truly great art, but most of the time he just painted the canvas flat gray?

Could you imagine a painting that always morphed, and had a mind of it's own whose only peramiters for change is the paint on the canvas. What a world.

All this pie in the sky might be poopy in the eye.

It might be. I know I'm all screwed up.

If we need to be told to do something, we don’t do it naturally. This means we would need to purpose to do it.

True!

If you like my blog ideas, leave a comment. I am a sufferer of praise-achiest. (I ache if I don’t get some praise). Yes, I know that’s nuts. Welcome to my world.

Jerry, you are a fun person to argue with! And that's high praise coming from me!

As Og the troglodyte might say, “praise good”.

And if you take away the "O" from "good" you get "God", but if you take away the "D" from "devil" you get "evil". See where I'm going with that? If you do, seek psychiatric help!