I’m reading When Bad Things Happen to Good People, by Rabbi Harold Kushner. First published in 1981 (revised edition, 2001) Kushner wrote in response to the death of his fourteen year old son Aaron in 1977 of a condition called progeria, “rapid aging.”
I read the book when it first came out but am now rereading in preparation for the message (we stay away from calling it a sermon) I will be giving at church on March 3rd. In searching for the book on my library’s on-line catalog, I keyed in the wrong title, a common mistake that Kushner addresses in the preface to the revised edition.
“I met a lot of people who tell me that they have read my book, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? I politely point out to them that the book is not titled “Why” but “When.” The really important question is not why bad things happen, but where will we find the resources to cope with them when they do happen.”
Both questions are important. Responses to ‘why? delve us into the nature of God, an essential conundrum that I believe, wittingly or unwittingly, we address on our faith journey. The ‘when’ moves us forward to cope with real matters in our life. The ‘why’ and the ‘when’ have to
dance together
My church ‘sermon’ is developing into a message about importance of questions we ask, And so, I will end this blog with two ‘why’ questions: Why not jot down your God questions? Why not read Kushner’s gem of a book?
I read the book when it first came out but am now rereading in preparation for the message (we stay away from calling it a sermon) I will be giving at church on March 3rd. In searching for the book on my library’s on-line catalog, I keyed in the wrong title, a common mistake that Kushner addresses in the preface to the revised edition.
“I met a lot of people who tell me that they have read my book, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? I politely point out to them that the book is not titled “Why” but “When.” The really important question is not why bad things happen, but where will we find the resources to cope with them when they do happen.”
Both questions are important. Responses to ‘why? delve us into the nature of God, an essential conundrum that I believe, wittingly or unwittingly, we address on our faith journey. The ‘when’ moves us forward to cope with real matters in our life. The ‘why’ and the ‘when’ have to
dance together
My church ‘sermon’ is developing into a message about importance of questions we ask, And so, I will end this blog with two ‘why’ questions: Why not jot down your God questions? Why not read Kushner’s gem of a book?
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