Unstoppable Movie

Every once in awhile I'm the coolest mom on the planet. Some examples: the 4 times we've had ice cream for dinner, the time I bought way too much candy for church camp, and the time I stayed up long past midnight with my kids and one of their friends to make a spoof of How Animals Eat Their Food.  Another example may or may not have involved toilet paper.

And tonight I let my kids see a movie that started at 8pm on a school night. (blows on fist, wipes it on shoulder)

O.K., O.K. It was a Christian documentary and that hardly qualifies as the "coolest" parent on the planet, but I didn't see any other kids in the theatre, so there! I think I should get at least a half a point for that one. 

Here's the trailer:

Kirk Cameron throws out a pretty hefty question out on the scale and he promises to balance it.

"Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?"

To answer the question, Cameron promises to prove to us that "...life is stronger than death, good is stronger than evil and faith is stronger than doubt." 

I'm not so sure that answers the question.

We've been asking ourselves, each other, and our God that for a long time. I wonder if Eve cried out to God asking the same question as she held her dead son, Abel, in her arms and watched as his murderer, her other son, left home for good. (Although, she may have had a better idea than we do today.)

One thing about my generation is that we were trained to question everything. Well, everything Christian, anyway. God, the Bible, Jesus...we got the distinct notion that it should all be distrusted. One of the biggest faith-crushing questions presented to us was, "If there really is a God, why does He allow bad things to happen to good people?" It stirs up a host of sentiments, it sparks a lot of debate, and it silences many of us who choose to be honest with ourselves and realize we do not have an answer to satisfy the nonbeliever, much less ourselves.  

I wanted a definitive answer tonight. I was skeptical, but I wondered if perhaps Cameron had found a way to explain it like I had never heard before. But to be honest, I wasn't all that disappointed that he didn't answer that question for me.

I think at the end of the day, we have to hash that out between ourselves and God. It sounds so basic and so patronizing, but when you finally get dirty and try to answer that question, that's what it boils down to. If you want to know who He is, it's best to start a conversation with Him. I remember praying several years ago, God, if You are real and if You really do care about my life in an intimate way, I need you to show me. I'm not seeing it. I'm going to believe one more time. I'm going to go ahead and pray to You, even if I'm praying to my own imagination, in hopes that You will answer that question for me.

He did.

It's up to us to wrestle with God, to slam our fists on the table and scream, "Why God?!?" It's up to us to choose whether to continue asking why in the world God, if He exists, doesn't just stop the injustices of the world... or you just have to give up. 

You should know, however, that giving up still doesn't answer the question.