"...ITS ALLOWED, NOT DECIDED..."

I’ll say God seems to have a kind of laid-back management style I’m not crazy about. I’m pretty much anti-death. God looks by all accounts to be pro-death. I’m not seeing how we can get together on this issue, he and I.
― David Foster Wallace
Gathered at Live and Learn

I posted this quote to FB. There were some interesting comments, including one from a girl that cares about me who thought maybe I was about to off myself. Or something.

Of more interest is this, from my friend Terry:
“Don’t lay so much on Him … He is a loving God. Sometimes bad things happen, there’s reasons for it in it’s own time. But make no mistake, it’s allowed, not decided. To think elsewise is to believe something is bigger than God … or whatever you want to call Him.”


And this from my friend Diana, a cancer survivor:
“I think we are born dying so live life to its fullest. I, personally, have had a few close calls to death….I want to live. God, whatever you call the supreme being, has let me down lot’s of times but hey, I’m still here and kicking and surviving…So I talked to the Man pretty much everyday…or cursing him, whichever the case may be, I believe in Angels too and have a few looking after me. Peace Out!”


And my reply to both of them:

“David Foster Wallace was a brilliant writer and a troubled soul who committed suicide in 2008.
I’d seen this matched up with Orlando on a blog. It made me think of a lot of things.
It made me think of the story of Job.
It made me think of the scene in Pulp Fiction where Jules and Vincent survive untouched a spray of bullets and Jules calls it a miracle.
And it made me think of all the things God has allowed man to do in order to prolong and improve life, like Diana’s cancer treatments, and possible common sense gun legislation.
God seldom steps in and stops bullets. We cant blame him for that. But he gives us the good sense to do something about it ourselves in time.
Or maybe I’m reading too much into it.”

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."
Jules, Pulp Fiction