"There is still no cure for the common birthday." - John Glenn

When our new focus on budget control encountered our TV satellite programming we downgraded from a mid-range package to something one level up from The Gameshow Channel and Crockpot Cooking TV. I was positive I checked to ensure NBCSN (their sports channel) was included in our smaller package so that I could watch F1 races. Must have been right, because I recorded last Friday's F1 practice session and Saturday's qualifying session from the Hungarian Grand Prix so I could watch it at my leisure. But I didn't get Sunday's race! How come??

I did a live chat online with "Jason" from DishTV. Nope, NBCSN isn't in our new, cheaper package.
Then why did I get it for practice and qualifying but not for the race???
DishTV sometimes gives you one of their premium channels free for a month as an enticement, NBCSN was available on that basis, and the month expired at midnight Saturday.
AAARGH!!

So, am I willing to pay $15 more a month to watch F1 races for the second half of the season?
Is my last name MacDonald?

After snagging Mouse #1 yesterday I reset the traps with more cheese and put more peanut butter on the poison block. This morning...nada! Is it possible there was just one mouse?? I realize that's very unlikely, but I'd feel a lot better about putting down the carpeting if I didn't think I'd get mouse poop and pee on it from Day One.

In 1978 Rabbit Harold Kushner's book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, was published by Doubleday. A few years earlier his son died from the premature aging disease progeria, and he wrote this book as a response to that event. The word theodicy means the explanation for the presence of evil in a world governed by a good God. Thus, Kushner's book was on the topic of theodicy.

It quickly became a best seller for an obvious reason: everybody has bad stuff happen to them, and the vast majority of us think we're pretty good, at least too good to deserve the bad things happening to us. We'll leave that error aside for now and consider Kushner's answer.

He said there are only two options. The first: God could do something about it but does not care. The second: He cares but cannot prevent the bad things from happening. That is, the question of theodicy seeks to reconcile two characteristics of God, his sovereignty over all things and his goodness. Kushner concluded that the presence of evil requires that one of those characteristics cannot be absolute.

He concluded that the notion of a God who is not good is simply untenable, inconceivable. Therefore, it must be that his control over events is not absolute. His goodness takes care of us when the inevitable and unpreventable bad things happen. Our role is to be alert to and receive that good care.

Nope. The Bible tells us that God is both in control and good. And while the issue of theodicy doesn't fit in a blog post (as in, entire books on the topic) there's a third option: God's sovereignty and goodness both function fully and perfectly at every time and in every circumstance. At those points when we cannot see the confluence of those two attributes we accept them both as true by faith. That was Job's commitment. His suffering was real and great but in faith he accepted that, while he couldn't reconcile what was happening to him, somehow it made sense in the divine scheme. He was finite, God infinite, and accusing God of injustice in inadequacy was arrogance at its worst. "In all this, Job did not sin by what he said."

Though he didn't use the word theodicy the preacher talked about this last Sunday. It's a topic that needs to be discussed because it's not if, but when our lives will hit something akin to Job's experience. At that point it's too late to work the issue; we need to have our response ready.