i was just reading about job and his three friends in my old testament studies book. they discuss retribution theology, the idea that good is rewarded with good while sin has bad consequences. at the end of the chapter, it kind of mentions that this is true to the way God does things. In a general sense. and i suppose i agree. but it gave me a little thought. perhaps one that is old, nothing original on my part, but it is certainly new for me. at least, a new way of thinking of this general idea. i guess i have always imagined that even good is sometimes rewarded by evil here on this earth...just because of that lousy sin. and sometimes, evil is rewarded by good. it's not always fair, good people suffer, etc. but... just now, i think a new angle came to mind. it may be totally off, but it's something i might ponder. it is that perhaps i am right, that sometimes good turns out bad, etc. but that might only be for things we do or are done to us. we might do good things, be on time, finish our homework, get good grades always be nice and all this great stuff, and our parents still might get divorced or our brother die or our uncle kill someone and land in jail or all our money burn up in a fire or all our best friends move to turkey or something. it could happen. and of course, on the flip side, there are plenty of bad people (tend to be famous) who have a lot of cool stuff going for them like money, power, influence, lots of food, etc. Ok, BUT, what if retribution theology is right for what goes on inside of us! our CHARACTER! i think that God always rewards faithful, good, honest, pure character with good. no matter what. in a sense, our character, who WE are, what we are, who I am, is the only thing I can control. All that other stuff, no matter what kind of good guy I am, could all be out of my control. right? I think. mostly, at least, huh? anyway, so if I am a good guy, who tries to be faithful to my God, bad stuff may happen to me all the time. but, unlike what job's friends were thinking (if I understand the story correctly), it wouldn't be because i had sinned (necessarily) or anything like that. it's just sin. it could all be out of my control. but in the end, at least, my faithful self, the heart i gave to God, my submissive nature and devoted heart to God will be rewarded by good. i would say that a lot of the reward could eventually happen even here on earth, but if not, we certainly have heaven to look forward to.
it's like, God doesn't make sin, and we don't make sin either. but sin is. just because we chose to let it come. and then we blame God for that. i don't think we fully understand that whole situation, but i don't think we can blame God. we don't see the whole picture. and i suppose you don't have to believe that God does either. it might be hard if you believe that He is a jerk who lets good people suffer. but their suffering isn't His fault, He isn't doing it, and if they just complain and do bad things because of their suffering, then He certainly won't be rewarding them any time soon. However, if that person decides in their heart to just believe that God is God and good and love and all that He is, then I believe that person will be rewarded for exuding that kind of character during his/her suffering.
and wow. that is a lot of talk for a blog no one reads. but that's ok. i might read it later or something. at least i got it out. : ) peace