Thrive!

Sometime I look at how much violence, abuse and evil there is in the world and I wonder, where is God? Abuse, rape, violence, hate —  how can he see it up close and not do something about it?

But perhaps God is doing something about it, in this way.

Built into the very structure of reality are consequences, the rewards and punishments intrinsic in actions.

The violent shoot and stab their own hearts with their violence as soon as they hit, pull the trigger or wield the knife. When they harm and kill, they kill mercy, compassion and love within themselves.  Every act of violence harms the perpetrator.

I can myself remember getting so angry, inappropriately, that I could literally feel it harming myself. All actions elicit immediate, attendant reactions and results.

The rapist in raping rapes his own soul. He immediately violates his own bondaries and harms his own capacity for respect, for gentleness and for love. Yes, he damages another, horribly, but in raping he annihilates himself.

The evil instantly become the evil they do, and this is the most horrible of punishments. To become the thing that harms, wounds and destroys — this is what it truly means to destroy oneself.

The greedy beome greedy and lose the real purpose and value of things. The sexually immoral become jaded and lose the real joy and meaning of sex. The dominating become dominant and are cut off from love and friendship and respect — ironically often the very things they crave.

Jesus said it best. We reap what we sow — and this is more quickly than we know. Indeed, the seeds of what we sow sprout instantly in our hearts.

The truth is that God is not absent, indifferent, inactive or uncaring. God is just and right and good. He has built justice into the very DNA of our existance.