Of Sovereignty and Son

Recently, it occured to me how often I'm on facebook for absolutely no reason - say, when I have already been on in the last few days, or worse, the last few hours. I realized this was becoming a bad habit when I then got distracted from my train of thought, only to then log on to facebook a few minutes later. Yikes! So, I am now being more intentional about living life outside the computer screen. I might get a bit more reading done, for example.

Specifically, I have recently started to read If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil by Randy Alcorn. I wanted to read this book, because lately I have been very troubled by the suffering I hear about in the world, and I have decided I ought to dedicate some time and attention to improving the schema in which such feelings reside.

I firmly, firmly believe that God is good, all the time, no exceptions. It is his instrinsic nature, and it remains to this day - and forever- untarnished. He is also sovereign, having absolute authority over all things that occur everywhere; nothing sneaks by him, and he is never backed into a corner and forced to allow suffering. He is aware of it, and he has the power to stop it, and yet he doesn't. He is able to redeem all suffering and evil to his glory, and indeed, a cursory read of the stories of Joseph (Genesus 47ish) and the book of Ruth, to name just two, clearly identify God as not just the redeemer but also the purposer of suffering in the lives of his children - bringing about great and better plans, identifying important and magnificent traits of God, increasing his glory.

Although I am only three chapters into the book, I am hopeful that Alcorn's book will be a provocative read. He agrees with the basic concepts listed above - that God is always good, uncompromisingly sovereign. He seems willing to wrestle with Biblical truth without compromising as many seem to do in hopes of making the issue of God and suffering neater and more easily digested by the general populace. I don't expect Alcorn to have "the answer," but I am hoping for some good food for thought about the Biblical content relating to this topic. I'll let you know if the book meets expectations once I have finished it.

In other news, life with Gideon continues to be an increasing blessing. Not only is he now sleeping - 10 HOURS AT A TIME, hallelujah, but he also now shrieks with laughter and has a developing sense of humor. He understands that when David growls and booms and makes other loud noises, it is funny - not a sign that we should all panic. Furthermore, he delights in David's magical powers - namely, the ability to make the trash can lid pop up on command (it has a foot pedal for hand-free opening), to make food disappear (chewing and swallowing), and to make David's work ID badge appear and diappear (it is on a retracting clip that is pretty fast, and G's eyes don't track moving objects at that speed).

It is now a week later, and I am finally returning to post this little entry. Better late than never, I hope.