Awareness
BY ROBIN WILLIAMS
A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed.
As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation.
They talked about so many things and various subjects.
When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said:
“I don’t believe that God exists.”
“Why do you say that?” asked the customer.
“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine loving a God who would allow all of these things.”
The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.
Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and un-kept.
The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: “You know what? Barbers do not exist.”
“How can you say that?”, asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!”
“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”
“Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me.”
“Exactly”, affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”
I got this in a email and it is a topic that we discuss frequently in my small group. It is much like the discussion held at this post, but a little different perspective. I know that one of the questions raised in my small group would be something like, “but what about when bad things happen to good people?”
How do YOU explain that? What analogy do you use?
When I was 12 I wrote an essay called “Analogy to Life” and I have it framed somewhere but I don’t think I have it digitized so I’d have to find the frame and then retype it, which would be worth it to me if I could just find it. I promise when I do I’ll post it here, especially for my own archival purposes. It pretty much sums up my spiritual view about life. It is odd that I could write it down at that age not really knowing my spiritual self at the time, and now as a Christian adult still agreeing with what I had written. Anyhoo, what is a little freaky is that my analogy is a puzzle. At the time my mother was a puzzle addict (she has weaned a little as we stopped getting them for her for holidays). It wasn’t even an assignment (very uncharacteristic of me) but something came over me while I was helping her with a puzzle and I wrote it. So as we embark on World Autism Day and Autism Awareness Month in April, the essay has brought on a whole new meaning to me. I can’t wait to find it and post it. It may have been the single most profound thing I’ve ever birthed, not literally..but literarily.
Interesting what you wrote at 12, you still hold the same values. Hope you do find it.
Why do bad things happen to good people? Bad things happen to everyone, I think. It is what we make of the experiences that count. I do believe we are in a broken world and that plays a big part in it.
Something I learned a long time ago. Without bad we wouldn’t know what good is and would have nothing to compare it to. Without pain and suffering we wouldn’t know how good we have it. Yeah, it sucks sometimes but all I can think is that my life (our life) is pretty darn amazing. We’ve got it good.
Happy Belated Birthday! (Just saw Terry’s post)