one of my most important daily reads, Mr Porretto discusses, on Christmas Day, the question of “How can G-d allow suffering in the world”

One of the actual tests of a person’s Christianity, in my head, is the way they deal with that question.

The person to whom the post was directed asks this question, and Mr P, with his typical aplomb, gives plenty of reasonable answers. The bottomline, being, “God does not cause or allow human suffering, Humans do” (apologies for cutting to the Cliffs notes chase on that, read the original post if you want to absorb Mr P’s full monty on the subject)

So I disobeyed my own rule against proselytizing and jumped in with both feet, and it became apparent very quickly that RegT was not interested- at all- in actually learning anything.

The one noters, the one trick ponies, are invariably the ones who have the agenda. Like the ubiquitous MikeB who floats around the gunboards, and all the others like him, his “Why does God allow X to happen to Y?” is not a legitimate question seeking a real answer, it’s a hammer to attempt to weaken the faith of others. A person legitimately interested in learning will ask questions, listen to the answers, and try to understand. The agenda driven will only repeat their talking points list of denials and refutations.

Don’t waste your time. This just reinforces my rule: Pray for these people, but don’t try to “Fix” them or “convert” them. They have been damaged at best or turned toward evil at worst; it is not in your power to make it any different. People who want to change- really want to change- will do so. They do so on their own, and no outside influence can change that. Oh, sure, you can help someone who wants to recover, but like the psychiatrist and the light bulb, it has to want to change.

Anyone who has ever been to a few AA meetings understands this. Anyone who has spent time around junkies knows this. If you have so much of your psyche invested in your bottle, or the spike, or the idea that people shouldn’t own firearms, or smoke, or have faith in G-d, there isn’t anything I or anyone else can do for you to change that. it’s just not going to happen.

So, pray for those folks. (You’ll usually get people who will say “Don’t waste your prayers on me!”. Usually this is out of fear- fear that those prayers might succeed) Only the individual can make that choice, and the longer i live the more I realize this to be true. I would love to think I can be the agent of that kind of change, but that is certainly beyond my power, and beyond the power of almost everyone I know. If the words of Jesus Christ can’t convince you, how am I going to get anywhere?. Prayer is almost always the very best thing you can do, and it is one of the few things you can do that will certainly never harm anyone. Best part is, you can give your prayers, and it takes nothing from you at all. And the junkie, the alcoholic, the faithless are the people who need your prayers the most.

Once the person makes the decision, though, do whatever you can to help them make it stick. THAT is what you can do.