WHY? Often the toughest question to answer. Why are all these terrible events happening in the world right now? Why isn’t someone doing something about them? Why is God not preventing or stopping them?

These are difficult questions which people – believers and non-believers – have struggled to answer for millennia. When we read the creation story in the Book of Genesis, the world was perfect – “And God saw that it was good”. Then we encounter Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the Devil deceives Eve, introducing the difference between good and evil and, specifically, the consequences of sin or wrongdoing.

The difference between good and evil and the consequences of wrongdoing are recurring themes throughout the Bible. Time after time, God and his son, Jesus, give guidance on that difference and how to deal with wrongdoing but people do not always listen and learn.

The real challenge is human frailty; we are both good and evil; we are both “Dr Jekyll” and “Mr Hyde” as Robert Louis Stevenson described. We have the free will to decide which path to follow. As Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Note that he did not say that choosing good is easy.

Even when we do wrong and we suffer, God is still there to comfort us and guide us. He is still there to help and teach us, provided we are willing to listen and understand. We have the freedom to choose between good and evil. We cannot have the freedom to choose and then blame God for not preventing our choice of evil. Either we have freedom or not. Either we choose or not. We cannot have it both ways; we must take responsibility for our own actions. As the psalmist says, “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

Julia Keep, St Austell Deanery