Louisville Process Theology Network

Guilt II

Nov 26, 2007

Rabbi Harold Kushner puts it this way in his immensely popular book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People.

"I would like to think that the anguish I feel when I read of the sufferings of innocent people reflects God's anguish and compassion, even if His way of feeling pain is different than ours."

He continues, "...it may be that God finished His work of creating eons ago and left the rest to us...In that case, we simply have to learn to live with it, sustained and comforted by the knowledge that the earthquake and the accident are not the will of God, but represent that aspect of reality which stand independent of His will, and which saddens and angers us."

From our lay perspective -- Maybe the most effective way to deal with guilt is to begin giving something back.

By doing this, we put our compassion to actual practice. We also demonstrate our gratitude for God's love.

Everyone knows that we cannot change the world in one big step. But, we can do our best everyday to do better. It's a process of "continuous improvement" to borrow the language of business management.