question regarding Gods plans for ppl!????all are welcome to try and decipher this ,if you can that is???

This, along with Noah's ark, are undoubtedly the two most embarrassing subjects that Christians must face.

How can we mere humans have more compassion for our own children than the supposed being that created us, has for us? What sort of twisted parents would ever DESIGN IN ADVANCE a lifetime of suffering and misery, (not to mention eternal damnation) for their children, when its obvious to anyone with a brain that lessons taught rationally through compassion and understanding are always more effective?

Too bad their doctrine is sacrosanct, or they could have at least modified it to eliminate the most repulsive and absurd aspects.

So12G. We have to revisit our sunday school understanding of God. We have delvolped this God that is not realistic. God created in plentitude. In the creation story in genesis it says the seas were teeming with all kinds of fishes. same goes for poeple and good and evil. And God can work in all the good and the evil in the world. I would offer that God does not know what will happen in advance and if God could, chooses not to. this does not add up with what we learn in SS but it is more realistic.

Several years ago I did a funeral for a man that held his two year old hostage and eventually killed the child and himself. those were very hard funerals to do. The only thing I could tell those gathered for the service was rather than ask why, ask what. What do we do now. What can we do for mental health, how can we work in the communty to deminish domestic violence.

In your case, you do not say if your child died or not. But I often use John Walsh as an example. His son was killed and decapitated by a serial killer. John could have blamed God but instead he used his anger and grief to start the America's Most Wanted Show.

We are God's eyes and hands and even mind in solving the problems of this world. You for example could be an advocate working in hospitals with parents with children going throught similar things or be a chaplain in a hospital. I was an emergency room chaplain and I think I was helpful to many families in crisis.

I wish I could put you in touch with another mom I know whose son has stage 4 neuroblastoma -- and over the last year her 4 year old son has become deaf because of chemo, and she has watched other children with her son's cancer die...

but through all this, she has been stalwart in proclaiming that she has known God's presence and has experienced many graces. Her faith is astounding and I am in awe of it.

My heart breaks for you and your son -- I know you're both going through so much.

The difficult answer is that there just isn't an answer to the "why."

I do believe that God is with you and especially with your son, but why God sometimes intervenes and sometimes doesn't, I can't claim to know -- and even if I did, nothing I could say to you would be sufficient, would it...? Because I, as a human, can't see things from God's eternal perspective.

The best discussion I've ever read on this difficult concept is "The Shack" by William P. Young. http://www.theshackbook.com/

I know you don't think it will account for much, but I will be in prayer for you and your son.

(There is a school of thought, called "process-relational" theology, which says that God is still in formation, suffering with us, and adjusting God's formation in relation to what events occur...I don't know...I'm not that familiar with this concept, but it is the efforts of some theologians to explain why there is sickness, evil and suffering in the world).

God gave man will. Man chose to worship Perfection or to worship himself the selfish ME. By worshipping the ME greed came into play, hoarding occurs. Hunger occurs, abuse of chemicals are used that injury us, the earth is abused. rape happens, slavery is evident, disease becomes evident, the have nots and the haves exist. God knows that this happens, but He respect will, we are the ones who decide what will occur in this world, good or evil. He could intervene, but He is infinite and when He says or does something He means it. He respected our being, not being pushy. It is up to us to help each other and make this world a better place, which is possible, seeking the Good or seek the ME.

There is a place in Juarez, Mexico where they dump the trash, people live around the dump in card board houses. They live off the trash, daily scouring the trash for thing to sell and eat. The family, including the kids work in the smoke filled environment from sun up to sun down. They eat what they have found the night before. Such is life. Greed enters in the picture. One day the kids found a irredescent gooey substance, wow how beautiful it was. They got it and shared it with their friends. They brought it home, shared it with their families. Maybe they could sell it. They made necklaces, spead it on their bodies, etc. How unlucky they were. A foreign company had illegally dumped radioactive waste into the dump. Those that came into contact of course died a horrible death. The company, gone. God did not interfere. Man had chosen to be greedy, to worship the Me. I moarn for all the poverty in this world. It is overwhelming. My wife and I go to Juarez sometimes early and see the kids sleeping in the streets abandoned by their parents because they cannot afford to keep them. I see people with tumors, diseases, old people just laying in the street, people walk over them and could not care less, that god of Me. I too am guilty I guess. I tried calling an ambulance and they told me to butt out, the man had no money and there was no service that would pick him off the street.

I hear about the slave trade here in El Paso, TX, the US sister city of Juarez in El Paso, where women and girls are found in homes ready for shipment to other cities. God, no He didn't do it. We are so busy spending money on the war, pork barrel projects, pharmacutical companies making the big bucks. I bet we could have solved the disease of cancer with that money. Oh so many Me's exist. So don't blame God. He is respectful of His creation, blame Man and his choices. Pray that He may intervene. Amen.

We don't fully know why God allows suffering, but we do know it is not caused in any way by your child's actions or spiritual state. Sometimes those who love God suffer and the Bible tells us of this (i.e. the book of Job). Jesus suffered. Sometimes good things are given to those who are bad. We don't settle the score or even know why things are so confusing and painful. For example, I have bipolar disorder and it makes my life very difficult and affects me in countless ways. I have to live differently, manage myself in ways other people don't. It is hard and lonely.

Christians often have greater faith and get to know God more intimately during pain and suffering than when content or pacified. This has been the case with me, many times. Knowing God, not just "being" saved but knowing him as a person and source of strength and loving father or parent, is the ultimate purpose (whether we realize this or not) for all we do. In knowing him, our lives become richer and more deeply felt.

God has promised to right wrongs, heal, and restore us in ways greater than we can know now. Christians believe this, but many people doubt it. Whether or not it is rational to believe this is a different debate, but as a Christian that is what I can say about you and your son right now.

I'm sorry you have to go through such emotional turmoil, and feeling helpless about your child's suffering.

I know, for sure, that no one can answer your questions. Events in our lives shape us into the people we become. Instead of searching for answer in a pitiful human, such as myself. You can find answers within yourself. All people have refining moments in their life. If you are angry at Christians for saying God knows all, or you are angry at God, I don't know.

Your question seems to lose focus from the suffering of your child. I'm not sure what you are looking to understand from asking this question.

Unless you know what it is you want how will you ever get it?

With all the respect you do not understand at all.

First you have to understand that the prince of this world is Satan, and he is

1 Peter 5:8 (NASB95)

8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

But JC has given us a promise

Revelation 21:3-7 (NASB95)

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,

4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

5 And He who sits on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." And He said*, "Write, for these words are faithful and true."

6 Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.

7 "He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND NOW?

Revelation 3:20 (NASB95)

20 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

Are you ready to invite JC?

You already know the answer to this as you have asked it many times before. I would suggest that, for once, you actually read and understand and PRAY that the Holy Spirit can intercede on your behalf. This is not God's Will for he said that "none should perish" and there is no greater love that for the children. If this is not God's Will - then who's is it? Is it your child's will? Is it yours?

It's time for you to come to the place where your questions can be answered and none of us can give you the truth of what you are going through.

My own trial was fought through and won because of James 1:2. And I found the joy even in the midst of the trial and the persecution could not destroy my spirit for I came to understand the truth of what Paul writes about in Ephesians 6:12.

I had no power, but I found the full power of God in me and with me as I stood alone against the evil one for I now understand how to put on the full armor of God.

This is not so much about your child as it is about your ability to show strength and courage and love in the turmoil and certainty of impending death.

Without God - everything comes in as fear.

With God - you shall fear nothing.

What side of the fence do you want to make your stand?

I am very sorry to hear about your child's ordeal.

Few can answer these questions this side of the impenetrable curtain. Here are two books, one I've read, the other I have not yet. Both are by C. S. Lewis. The first is The Problem of Pain. The second is A Grief Observed.

A close friend of mine saw a sibling murdered before his eyes. Both were very young. We often discuss the kind of question you raise. One day I was asking him to suggest any plausible reason at all, as to why we do not understand what it is that God has in mind when these things happen. And yours is but one of many cases. This we both know. You described these kinds of agonies this way: "When a child gets cancer and has to undergo soooo much pain and suffering to fight it, is that part of the divine plan of God or did that child do something so terrible that he/she deserves to suffer?" Before I get to my friend's insight, let me suggest that the pain and suffering is not something the child deserves. Neither is what the parent goes through something the parent deserves. God's answer to our scream for significance and meaning seems to be no writing, no voice. Just His own Son willingly taking on extreme sufferings He did not deserve, suffering so intense that He would have died even if He had not been pierced with a lance.

As an answer, that is very hard to fathom. I often wonder why was the agony so extreme, why in fact was such extreme agony embraced. Had God just come to earth and been bitten by a scorpion or a rabid dog, the suffering of God surely would have been sufficient to save the world.

The extremity of the suffering serves to assure us that whatever we experience, by comparison, will be less. It also serves to show us that if we accept this suffering as somehow working towards some part of the world's salvation, then, just maybe, there is a slim chance that the pain and agony would be justifiable to a human mind. The suffering we undergo can serve in that way if we join it to the suffering of Christ.

You may have the same problem with this answer as I do.

What about the 2 month old with bone cancer? The option for that child to join its suffering to Christ's does not seem to exist.

Why? Why!? Why!!

The Book of Job doesn't seem to me to be an adequate response. And in any case, it takes too long to read it, when the mind is so distraught it doesn't know the time of day.

My friend's answer was: Maybe we are not given to understand the workings of God's plan because, if we did, the knowing would work at cross-purposes to God's wish for all to be saved. Those aren't his precise words, but if he were to visit this post one day I think he would recognize them.

He delivered them so quickly it almost sounded rehearsed. I wasn't sure I had heard it correctly so I asked him to repeat what he had said.

It took the two of us, working together for almost an hour to finally reconstruct what had been spoken

For me, that is a sign that the words had been inspired by the Holy Spirit in the first place.

I can only hope that this account will provide you with some solace.

I have not been through what you have, not exactly. But I saw my father go through something similar. He was a good man, a really good man. He raised an honest, law-abiding family and never laid a hand on anyone. Why, I asked, did he have to suffer the agony of seeing a loved one deteriorate before his eyes? Seeing him suffer led me to suffer too, but nothing like he went through and nothing like what you must have.

Evil comes from the human mind and human action and from the world around us. The evil from humans is very puzzlingly allowed by God. Evidently He values free-will so much that evil caused by humans is tolerated everywhere and always. He didn't intervene even when HIs own Son was the Victim. He also didn't develop an alternative just because it was known. In fact, it was known from before the creation and still the creation was made! Maybe we can accept that. Maybe not. But the evil, the pain the suffering caused by the physical world, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc., why are those allowed?

I asked George Wiegel that question and he referred me to the Jewish view that when the disobedient angels fell from heaven and entered Hell, that all of creation was broken thereby. That the world which was to be hospitable to humans became inhospitable.

That doesn't do much for me; I don't know if it does anything for you. There once was a thread addressing these questions at CatholicExchange.

I come back to my friend's words: Maybe if we knew our salvation would be jeopardized.

Lately we have taken this up again from the angle of: Why is there something like this, so important to us, and yet our intellects, given to us by Him, Himself, are barred from discovering.

Sort of a supplement to the previous possibility (note just a possible reason), is that God gave us His best to work our salvation; now, in our lives, for our part, perhaps He is giving us a chance to offer our best, our intellectual energy in a sacrifice of non-use, non-struggle, as a sacrifice of quietude, embracing instead a Trust in Him.

I'm sorry for what you and your family went through.

I am sorry for your child. Yes God knew and has some kind of purpose in all suffering. I know that trials either push people toward or away from God. Which will it be for you?

I am sympathetic to your family. I admit not knowing the pain you must feel as a clearly loving and devoted parent. God must seem so cruel and far away from you in your time of despair. You are not alone in your pain. I can not give you an answer as to why He has allowed this to happen. He alone knows, and your pain as a parent also pains the Heavenly Father. He has a plan, though it is not for me to say what it is. Even now, He is wanting you to trust Him through it. You can talk to Him about it and know that He is listening. Give Him a chance to reveal Himself to you. He really does love you and your son.