Had an interesting conversation this morning.

Unknown to me, Jon (a colleague from here) has been reading this blog.

Among the many things we discussed this morning was the effect Sarah's death has had on us. Logically he'd expected it to push us further away from God "How can God be real if he lets things like this happen?". I know he's not the only person to thing this on our behalf. So why haven't we denied God?

Situations like this remind me of a guy called Job. Some think he was just an illustration, some think he was a real guy. There's some stuff about him in the bible. Keeping it short, his story is that he was wealthy and had a large, grown up family. In a single day his children were killed and his wealth taken away, with only his wife left to him. Her solution - "curse God and die". What Job said has always stayed with me:

"Should we only accept good things from the hand of the Lord?"

It seems to me that if God is God, then we are His to leave or take as He wishes - how could He be God if it were otherwise? We don't own ourselves, have no 'rights' over our lives and cannot knock on His door and say "you've got it wrong: I should be different". That doesn't detract at all from the concept of a just and loving God. But what it does do is let us realise that we are part of a much greater picture, and have a role that we, willingly or otherwise, fulfill.

To explain how all this works in the process of free will is probably beyond me. But that may be another part of faith - acting as we feel God would have us do, and trusting that it lines up with His will.