Why Does God Allow Suffering

I don't know.

I thought about posting the above sentence as my entire post (because it's partly true) but that would not give adequate credit to God.

I belive the Bible to be true and therefore take the contents of the Bible as fact. If you don't believe the Bible to be truthful, it's an uphill battle for me to show you that God is good but that he also allows suffering i.e. if God is truly good, why does he allow bad things to happen to good people? But like Kevin McCallister and TV dinners, I'll give it a whirl.

One chapter I've found helpful is 2 Corinthians, chapter 1. In this letter from Paul, he says he suffered to:

(a) comfort those in any affliction - it's nice to be sympathetic towards or receive sympathy from somone is in a similar situation. Personal experience can often be very healing in times of anguish, hence support groups, etc.

(b) learn to lean on God and not trust in ourselves - this one is huge. I've heard a lot of testimonies from people being completely broken and humbled and dropping to their knees and crying out to God for help. Sometimes it takes being broken to realize we are not in control. I have a friend who is a chaplain for the Phoenix Suns and the KC Royals. He told me the NBA and MLB players are a lot more receptive to hearing the Word than the minor league players. I thought this was odd but then he said minor league players still think it's all about them and once they get to the big leagues, they'll have everything they've ever wanted. But the big league guys have achieved the ultimate prize and still have a void, their is still something missing - they learn it's not all about them. Pride can be more dangerous than a swimming pool full of sharks with laser beams attached to thier heads.



(c) to give thanks - I often don't thank God for my trials: "thanks for allowing life to be terrible for the past few weeks, I feel stronger..." But the truth is, I grow stronger from the trials and tests I encounter. Although it's usually not fun and I often fail to see the bigger picture at the time of my tribulation, I wouldn't be who I am today without the challenges and difficult decisions I've made in my life.

Let's not forget we are all greatly flawed - as Level 42 said in Something About You "we're only human afterall". Please be assured, God does not condone evil deeds. We heap sufferings upon ourselves, and the sufferings we don't bring upon ourselves happen for a reason, although we may not like that reason. Life can be long. It may be years or decades before we see any reason or good from our pain. I don't have all the answers, I'm just a flawed person like you who has been humbled on many occassions, and I can tell you I know God is good.

Bad Bodies = Good Players?

Does having a ridiculously bad body mean you're a really good baseball player? If my research is correct, then yes. I'd like to explore the theory that perhaps corpulent baseball players have the necessary energy stores to get through the grueling MLB season.

Subject 1: Tony Gwynn

Mr. Gwynn had an amazing career. He wasn't always rotund but he did pack on some pounds as his career progressed.

Subject 2: John Kruk

Kruk put up very respectable numbers and he's also remembered for being a character, like when he walked off the field and into retirement (in the middle of the season) after he got the hit that raised his career average to .300. He also gets bonus points for the mullet.

Subject 3: Rich Garces, AKA El Gaupo

Wait, not that El Guapo...this EL GAUPO (and yes, this really is Rich Garces)

I know you're telling yourself that the guy in the picture can't really be an MLB pitcher, but Rich Garces actually had a pretty good career.

Subject 4: David Wells

Boomer is actually a terrific athlete and he had a fantastic career (including a perfecto), but the dude had a serious gut.

Subject 5: Cecil Fielder

Cecil was always on the verge of busting out of his uni, or hitting a 500 ft bomb out of old Tiger stadium.

Current star of the All Bad Body Team: Prince Fielder

Fielder is a lot of fun to watch as a player, and to paraphrase Ty Cobb: "he's run pretty well for a fat man".

Top All Bad Body Team Prospect: Brett Wallace

Wallace can absolutely rake and he's holding his own at third base. He should continue to move through the Cards system quickly.

I think it's pretty obvious that having a body conducive to premature heart disease helps provide the necessary energy to get through 162 games. Just because you like burritos and ice cream doesn't mean you can't go out and throw a perfect game...or be the best player ever.

From The Evolution of the Post-Game Celebration, to...Evolution?

Macro evolution is a contentious topic. People that don't believe in evolution are often viewed as religous goobers with infantile IQs. I don't believe in macro evolution. Now, I will never be confused for a genius...but I did graduate college from a top 20, I'm currently enrolled in a top 20 for graduate school, and I did take both biology and chemistry in college, so I'm not a complete idiot (although my level of idiocy is probably arguable).

Since 1859, the theory of evolution has failed to fill some seriously gaping holes. And its quite obvious that we know substantially more about the complexities of animals/humans and the complexities of life's building blocks. There are some questions that just haven't been adquately answered. That doesn't stop some incredibly smart people from fully subscribing to the theory, regardless of shortcomings. I actually saw Richard Dawkins concede that maybe we originated from a more intelligent source because no plausible explanation can be attributed to our origins (he insinuated alien intervention, not God).

One quick example of a problem I have is that even if someone makes the huge leap to say that somehow a cell (which is quite complex) formed from a random chain of events, no one can explain how consciousness came about. You can create a ridiculously complex robot or computer program that can run circles around human capabilities, but you cannot create consciousness or true emotion, regardless of complexity or intelligence.

This is just one of the many issues I have with evolution. But aside from gaps in theory, the logic seems faulty. Am I really to believe a human, a shark, a snake, and a cat all had the same origin? Really? I mean...really? Random events generally do not create more complexities, specialties, and efficiencies - in fact, quite the opposite. There are over one million animal species in the world and we all had the same origin? It just doens't seem possible, especially when we see examples of animals that are so amazingly complex (the complexities of the human body and its processes are truly unbelievable, just look at DNA or the changes that occur during child birth for both the fetus and the mother) and animals with amazing specializations.

Evolution is a topic of great interest to me and I will write additional posts on the topic in the near future. Feel free to poke holes or make fun of my IQ and niavete, I'm used to it.

The Evolution of the Post-Game Celebration

After a game ends, the celebration begins. An odd thing I've observed is the evolution of the post-game baseball celebration.

It started with the handshake and then the basic high-five. It morphed into the fist-bump.



After the fist-bump, came the fist bump ->explosion...or "blow it up" --- when you go for the basic fist bump and then blow your hand open when you bump like your holding an M-80. Next came the inverted "blow it up", where you start with the open hand slap and then close it up when you hit hands. Baseball has now moved onto the hip bump...

Allthough the hip bump is not the coolest celebration I've seen...(Mac and Jose circa 1987-1991)



...It's better than the alternative.

(I purposely ommitted some modern iterations of baseball hand parties. The modern 'open backhand slap' ,which was popular in 2008, and the current windmill-like 'high five up top' into the 'follow-through slap down low' as you pass the person are not shown...mostly because I couldn't find any good pictures.)

If any major "missing links" are not included, please let me know.