hand of god

Tonight on my way home from class I drove home in one of the most amazing lightning storms I have ever seen.

There were fingers of lightning reaching out across the sky like hands, repeatedly. It was almost as if the hands were working in the clouds, and we could only see them as the light shined on them.

I suddenly had this weird feeling that God was saying something. It was like he was reminding me that he is constantly moving in the world around me. That there were miraculous things he was doing, even if they can be explained by science, they are still no less miraculous.

Then on farther along I came upon two wrecks, more lights, the bad kind. Nobody seemed to be too terribly hurt, but it was a reminder of the broken nature of the world. Then when I got to Second Baptist's Kingwood campus I saw more lights. The entire campus was surrounded by fire trucks and ambulances.

At this point the rain had died down some. It looked like the church had been struck by lightning and a few people had been hurt somehow in the aftermath (fire?).

Then farther along a fire station had been hit by lightning and there were fire trucks there making sure nothing was going wrong with the gas.


I have been troubled lately, and I think that this is part of my subconscious reminding me of my troubles.

I have been struggling with how a just and loving God can use violence. God commands Israel to destroy every person in some of the towns they come upon. How can the God that I love, who is changing me (a former war hawk) into a pacifist more every day, be so seemingly violent at times.

There is nothing more saddening than reading a voice that speaks into your life (Brian Mclaren) start to address a topic upon which you have questions and are passionate about (God's nature possibly violent?) only to attempt to answer the questions and fail. This one is sitting on my heart heavy tonight.