Did you know that Eve spent three years in therapy? No, you didn’t, because that fact was erased from our history along with so many others that just didn’t fit the criteria of the authors of Scripture.
Oh, don’t get me started! – Too late!
I believe it’s very telling that a lot of the missing facts in Scripture just happen to be about women. In particular, strong, powerful women who had something important to say about God’s call in their lives.
Okay, I got way off track. But, if you want to read more about it, I highly recommend the writings of Dr. Bart Ehrman, “The books removed from the Bible, whether from the Old Testament Apocrypha or early Christian writings, reveal a dynamic and evolving process driven by theological debates, questions of authenticity, and the shifting needs of early Jewish and Christian communities. Excluded texts, however, continue to offer valuable insights into the religious and cultural context of their times. While they may not have made the final cut into the canon, their existence highlights the diversity of beliefs and practices that characterized early Christianity”.
Anyway, back to Eve’s therapy sessions. If you recall, Adam, metaphorically being caught with his pants (or more accurately, his fig leaf) down, pointed his finger at Eve, “It was her fault, God! She made me eat the apple. I don’t even like apples!” Oh, and you think Eve wasn’t pissed? She, and every woman bearing children after her would have to endure the pains of childbirth. How is that fair?
So, after Eve suffered at least four times in childbirth while Adam sat in the waiting room watching a football game, she had had enough. When she was able to pull herself together, she made an appointment with a therapist. She was done! But, it didn’t go well in therapy either because at every session she cried uncontrollably, “IT’S NOT FAIR! God believed Adam when he blamed me for that whole apple incident while he snickered behind that damn tree?! IT’S NOT FAIR!!!”
After six sessions with her and nothing being resolved, the therapist sent her away with a copy of the forthcoming book, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”, by Harold Kushner. Since it would be a LONG TIME before the book came out, the therapist gave her a synopsis, which I will share with you in a moment. But first, let’s get serious…
How many of us today are horrified and angry with God for all the terrible things we are seeing on the news or are experiencing ourselves: the hatred, abuse of innocent people, children going hungry, immigrants detained in detention centers under deplorable conditions, a failing economy, and a war out of control? Of course, all that invokes anger and fear. But have we concluded that God doesn’t care because He won’t answer our prayers, or worse, that He has caused all of this turmoil to punish us for some reason?
I have to say that today I am in a better place to deal with all of this emotionally because I did my fist shaking at God years ago at one of the worst times in my life, which I wrote about in my book. During that time, I turned away from God because I was certain He didn’t care about what I was going through, and I told Him so. I felt so lost and angry that I struck out at Him, “If you cared so much about me, where were you when my mother was abusing me and when I was sexually abused by my brother-in-law?!” And then, suddenly, I heard Him speak to my heart so clearly, “I was right there with you. Your tears were my tears. Because I have given you all free will, I cannot control your actions, which breaks my heart. But, Linda, you too have sinned and fallen short.” OOPS!
So, now let’s consider these words from Harold Kushner. Who wrote his book after the death of his son:
“Life is not fair. The wrong people get sick, and the wrong people get robbed, and the wrong people get killed in wars and in accidents. Some people see life’s unfairness and decide, ‘There is no God; the world is nothing but chaos.’ Others see the same unfairness and ask themselves, ‘Where do I get my sense of what is fair and what is unfair? Where do I get my sense of outrage and indignation, my instinctive response of sympathy when I read in the paper about a total stranger who has been hurt by life? Don’t I get these things from God? Doesn’t He plant in me a little bit of His own divine outrage at injustice and oppression….Our responding to life’s unfairness with sympathy and with righteous indignation, God’s compassion and God’s anger working through us, may be the surest proof of all of God’s reality.”
So, never forget, God has given us His heart of compassion and empathy for others who suffer unrighteousness. And, yes, we are justified in the anger we feel. However, shaking our fist behind locked doors is not the answer. When we do that and insist that God fix it, his response, if we’re listening, is, “That’s what I have created you for, to be my hands and feet in this broken world. How will anyone know my love for them if you don’t show them?”
PASSION, PURPOSE & POOPYHEADS 