The God I don't believe in

I don't believe in a God who wills that a young person should be so distressed that s/he sees death as the only way of escape.

I don't believe in a God who gives such unbearable stress and heavy burdens to someone with a young family to care for that s/he feels it can no longer be carried.

I don't believe in a God who causes pain and suffering so acute that a sick person cries out for an end to it all.

I don't believe in a God who deprives an old person of all that s/he holds dear so s/he feels that there is nothing to live for.

I believe in God who sets humanity free in a world of many opportunities, who has given us freedom to do good or evil, to use our intelligence to develop ideas and create new things, to enhance the world or to destroy it, to give life and happiness or to take life and cause hate and sadness.

So where is God now? - In the midst of all, as we struggle to support the young, to build secure relationships, to relieve the pain and loneliness of the sick and the old, to comfort the bereaved.

God is with us in our suffering and in our joy.

God's small voice calls to us in the dark and we see the pinpoint of LIght.

That is the reality.

copyrighted in 2002, Published by Veritas.

From Despair to Hope is a Christian perspective on the tragedy of suicide. It is edited by Robert Cochran, Edith Loane, Katherine Meyer, Joan Rippingdale and Tony Walsh. Robert Cochran is the secretary of the Council of Social Responsibility for the Methodist Church in Ireland

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