Has God Abandoned Humanity?

There is so much pain in the world.

For those of us who enjoy relative peace, safety, and security, it may be easy to ignore or forget how many of Earth’s inhabitants are constantly hungry, constantly seeking clean water, constantly escaping wars and armed conflicts, or enduring extreme poverty. On a daily basis, we may not think of those without access to the written word, health care, or a safe place to sleep.

The Christian tradition teaches humanity’s ills are a result of humanity’s “fall” from innocence. Innocence was the lack of knowledge of evil. This is not the same as knowing about evil. “Knowing” evil is experiencing it as a part of the self.

In an undated, ancient time in the beginning of human history, a decision was made by those first inhabitants of Earth. They decided to live apart from the protection of God’s guidelines. We, their descendants, inherited that tendency, just as we inherited our other characteristics.

Despite the best efforts of those who have cared enough to struggle against the world’s ills, our prospects for a “good and happy” life seem questionable at best and dire at worst.

It is reasonable to ask if God has abandoned humanity.

The answer is no.

Humans still believe in the need for righteousness, or right thinking and right acting. Most of us believe “rightness” , or righteousness, should be extended to all people. Something aches and bristles within us when we experience or observe a wrong act.

Because we are able to believe in good—even though we cannot always see it or grasp it—we can know God has not abandoned humanity. God’s love is not a voluntary or optional act on God’s part. God is by nature love itself. There is nothing else for God to express to us.

Our disconnect from that knowledge of God’s love is defined as “sin.”

It is sin that corrupts, twists, and damages our thinking about who our Creator is and who we are in relation to our Creator.

Sin is expressed not only in the “traditionally bad” behaviors of alcohol abuse, adultery and fornication, or theft. Sin is also expressed as pride, damaging anger, unforgiveness, greed, envy, and the obsession with the self.

Put all of these together and multiply them by a few billion and you will no longer wonder why we have the world we have.

There is an answer to this very old problem. It begins with doing the very old-fashioned thing known as “renouncing sin.” This process begins with acknowledging we cannot solve creation’s problems apart from the Creator.

The answer begins when we return to the One Who Created Us and everything we know.

 We need to ask that One this question: “Who and what would you have me to be in this time and place?”

When you honestly ask that question, you will have your personal proof God has not abandoned humanity.