Are You Disappointed with God?

This is an excerpt from the book, "For This Day" by J.B. Phillips. It helped me a lot.

A Disappointment?

"The people who feel that God is a disappointment have not understood the terms on which we inhabit this planet. They want a world in which good is rewarded and evil is punished - as in a well-run kindergarten. They want to see the good man prosper invariably, and the evil man suffer invariably, here and now.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with their sense of justice. But they misunderstand the conditions of this present temporary life in which God withholds his hand, in order, so to speak, to allow room for his plan of free will to work itself out.

Justice will be fully vindicated when the curtain falls on the present stage, when the house-lights go on, and we go out into the Real World.

There will always be times when, from our present limited point of view, we cannot see the wood for the trees. Glaring injustice and pointless tragedy will sometimes be quite beyond our control and our understanding.

We can, of course, postulate an imaginary God with less good sense, love and justice than we have ourselves. And we may find a perverse pleasure in putting blame on him.

But that road leads nowhere.

You cannot worship a disappointment."