Does Genesis 1:29 Teach Vegetarianism?

 

PLEASE PIN - Christian vegan, Genesis 1:29 and vegetarianism

Does Genesis 1:29 teach vegetarianism? Should Christians be vegan? If so, how does a believer reconcile that with the animal sacrifices which God commanded, and with the apostle Peter’s vision regarding clean and unclean animals in the book of Acts?

There is some debate, and often a lot of confusion, around the topic, and not just between Bible literalists and their counterparts. So I thought it pertinent to examine the subject from a few angles.

Breaking down Genesis 1:29.

“And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food [Genesis 1:29, NKJV].”

If we were to take that literally, it would seem that, indeed, the ideal human diet as dictated by our Creator is not just a vegetarian diet, but a vegan one.

However, if you read my post about the first chapter of Genesis, you know that the early chapters of the first book of Genesis were written in figurative language. Though parts may be based in actual history, the individual verses were never intended to be interpreted literally. So it’s safe to say that the same goes for the verse in question.

Let’s take its section of the verse and see what biblical scholars have to say about it.

Then God said…

The phrase emphasizes divine authority while reminding us of the creative power of God’s word. Or, as it were, God’s Word [see John 1:1].

In other words, pay attention to what’s coming, because the Big Man is about to say something!

“Behold, I have given you…

“Behold” is meant to draw attention to the significance of the proceeding words, “I have given you.” It emphasizes God’s provision and generosity.

…every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth…

“Every seed-bearing plant” represents the abundance and variety of God’s provision. “Seed-bearing” points to the reproduction process, showing that God’s provision of food for us will be continual and lasting.

The phrase, “all the earth” depicts that this provision is meant to be universal, indicating how God cares for all of His creation.

…and every tree whose fruit contains seed.

Again, the word “seed” takes precedent, highlighting God’s abundance, as well as the natural order which He established. The food He is giving to humans is such that it will continually propagate itself, ensuring the humanity will never go hungry.

A deeper meaning is that God will supply whatever we need, when we need it, as the apostle Paul stated in Phillipians 4:19.

They will be yours for food.”

And here is where the debate comes in. Did God declare that human’s ideal food should come from the plant world only? Or is this statement merely an emphasis of the earlier symbolism?

But if the rest of the verse is merely symbolic, it’s odd that it would end with such a pragmatic statement. It’s worded almost like a command, such as, “Honor your father and your mother,” or, “You shall not steal.”

Let’s look at both sides of the Christian vegetarian argument and see if we can’t come to some kind of consensus.

The first side: Genesis 1:29 commands veganism.

If you take the verse literally, God is not only commanding people not to eat animal flesh. He is also commanding people not to eat any food of any kind that comes from an animal.

Some Christians believe that, despite any symbolism, the verse is meant as a dietary guideline. Humans are supposed to eat only seed-bearing plants and seed-bearing fruits.

But the pro-vegan argument goes deeper than that, adding nuance that begs examination from anyone who claims to care about God’s creation.

An article on the all-creatures website begins with a discussion of the dominion which God bestowed upon humanity in Genesis 2. Our dominion, the author insists, was never intended by God to be tyrannical. Instead, God entrusted people with stewardship.

“We should remember in our dealings with animals that they are a sacred trust to us from our heavenly Father,” the author adds, quoting another writer. From the beginning, people were meant to care for animals, while animals in turn provided service for us – service that does not include food.

This is an interesting take, as the strictest vegan believe that human beings should not be using animals for any purpose – not for pets, not for clothing, not for transportation. Then again, strict vegans tend not to have any belief in the Bible, as the author of the all-creatures article does.

Moving on, the author goes onto make a plea for a new understanding of the word “dominion.” It doesn’t refer to taking control over animals without regard for their intrinsic value and their feelings (mammals, and perhaps even reptiles and birds, have them). In addition, she prescribes a literal interpretation of the verse, stating that Genesis 1:29 establishes a vegan diet for humans, and that in the next verse, establishes the same for all animals.

She’s rather vague about why the worldwide flood and/or human’s depravity made God reluctantly concede to some apparent new need or desire for people to eat animal flesh. She does, however, make a salient point about how most livestock raised for food are treated today, discussing the cruelty and unsustainability of factory farms.

If you’re a Christian and the love of God dwells within you, choosing to consume meat from animals who are basically tortured either before or while in the process of providing food for you is sin. It is not how God intended for us to “take dominion” over animals.

And in my opinion, whatever else you think about the author’s literal interpretation of the verse, her conclusion isn’t far off base:

“While eating meat is not prohibited, it represents a complete break from God’s ideals of animals and humans living peacefully together, as depicted in the Garden of Eden.”

More pro-vegetarian Bible verses.

Genesis 1:29 is far from the only Scripture that intimates that God’s ideal world is one in which no living beings kill another.

**In Genesis 1:31, “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.” The implication is that the peacefulness of all nature living in harmony was His original design.

**Isaiah 11:6-9 contains the famous lines predicting a day when predator and prey will live in peace and harmony:  “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

“The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

“The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.

“They will neither harm nor destroy on My holy mountain.”

The verse is repeated in a succinct form in chapter 65, verse 25.

When God repeats something, He’s calling special attention to it.

**Psalm 104 illustrates God’s care for the animals that He created. As beings created in His image, we are to care for them as well.

**In Matthew 6:26, Yeshua reiterates this concept in His famous sermon on the mount, where He points out how our heavenly Father cares for even the smallest birds.

The Christian vegan explanation of God’s post-Flood meat-eating permission.

Beyond the Creation story, the biblical account of a worldwide flood is another part where literalists and non-literalists sharply disagree. But that many other cultures have, for thousands of years, passed on their own stories of an epic flood indicates that it might be rooted in fact.

Let’s say it did all happen just as God inspired the author(s) of Genesis to record. In that case, after the disaster, when the waters had subsided, God did, indeed, give humans permission to eat the flesh of dead animals.

Or… did He?

In another article on the all-creatures.org website, the writer explains that Genesis 9:2 has been translated from the Hebrew incorrectly. “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you,” the NIV translation states, making it sound as if God is giving humans permission to eat animals as well as plants.

But the author of the article points out that the Hebrew word translated into “Everything that lives and moves” is, in the English alphabet, remes. That word does not refer to animals generically.

It refers specifically – only – to reptiles.

I know. Disgusting, right?

Except… God wasn’t telling Noah to eat turtles, snakes and lizards. He told him that He was giving them to humans for food. What potential food do reptiles produce a lot of?

Eggs.

The author explains that God certainly couldn’t have been commanding Noah and his family to kill animals for food, because there were either only two or seven of each species at that time! But also, at this point very few plants exist on Earth, so if God doesn’t allow Noah and his family to eat something other than a diet of plants, they will all starve.

I have greatly simplified the article for brevity’s sake, so I encourage you to read it in its entirety here to get the full understanding. It contains further word study, as well as a compelling commentary on the entirety of Genesis 9.

The Christian vegan perspective on animal sacrifice.

Some theologians – not necessarily vegan ones – dispute the common belief that in the book of Leviticus, God is commanding the Israelites to sacrifice. In the culture of the day, religions of all kinds practiced animal sacrifice. If God made any commands at all, some say, they were commands that limited the number of sacrifices compared to the wanton killing of the pagan rituals.

Why not just command them not to sacrifice? Why not tell them it wasn’t necessary to please Him, that following His commands was enough?

I’ve thought about that question a lot lately as I’ve been studying the beginning of the Bible like I never have before. The uncharitable answer I have is that people back then were uncivilized, their cultures primitive. Besides being entrenched in that ancient Middle Eastern culture, they had not yet developed their consciences to the point where they could see that animals deserved to live as much as they did. Nor could they understand that a god would allow them to sin and not require a sacrifice.

Think about it: now when you mess up, all you have to do is accept the forgiveness that Yeshua’s sacrifice gained for you on the cross. In fact, Jewish animal sacrifice ceased the day that Yeshua was raised from the dead! So if it can be that way now, why not back then?

My non-verified, repetitive answer: the people were not capable of being reasoned with in that way.

Yes, the slaughter of the Passover lamb was a picture of how Yeshua would one day give Himself up so that death would pass us by. But why were all the other animal sacrifices necessary?

Many Jewish and Christian vegans believe simply that they weren’t.

I’m not saying I have the last word on that, but I believe it’s worth contemplating.

The flip side: The case for Christian meat-eating.

I’m going to make this part brief, because most believers have been taught for centuries to take a literal interpretation of most of the Old Testament books following Genesis. Most have been – apparently erroneously – taught that after the Flood, God gave humans permission to eat meat.

What does the New Testament say about eating meat?

As I already mentioned, Acts 10:9-16 recounts a vision that the apostle Peter had. Our Lord, trying to get him to realize that He wanted Gentiles to receive salvation as well, instructed him not to consider any kind of meat as unclean. In the Old Testament, God had listed several types of animals that were considered “unclean,” animals that we now know can be unhygienic for various reasons.

This story along with the passages in First Corinthians 8, where the apostle Paul reassures his flock that it’s okay to eat meat offered to idols as long as their conscience doesn’t smite them for doing so, are used as “proof” be meat-eating Christians that God doesn’t care if we kill animals for food.

And though there is evidence that some early Christians believed that killing animals for food was not God’s ideal, it was probably a small faction. Some Christian vegans claim that Yeshua Himself from eating meat. Though I have to say that the idea of the Lamb of God consuming the lamb at the annual Passover dinner strikes me as strange, He is depicted three times in the Gospels as sharing fish with others.

A real vegan wouldn’t do that.

Nor would they tell a story in which a father cooks veal for his long-lost son come home (Luke 15:11-32).

What do Bible commentaries say about Genesis 1:29?

In Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers, the author suggests that the food God gave to humans was superior to that which God gave to animals, signifying that “man is thus from the first pointed out as of a higher organization that the animal.”

The commentator points out the usual that animals were given over to man for food after the Flood, emphasizing the fact that God having covered Adam and Eve with animals skins after the fall, God obviously wasn’t against killing animals.

The Pulpit Commentary provides a more ambiguous interpretation of the issue, showing that the ethics of people killing animals for food isn’t necessarily inherent in the text.

The author quotes a scholar named Murphy: “Of two things proceeding from the same creative hand, neither has any original or inherent right to interfere in any way with the other. The absolute right to each lies in the Creator alone….”

The author of Pulpit Commentary also notes that God conveying only plant food to humans might have been a tool to keep the first people “mindful of his dependent condition.”

He also points out that though there has been some belief that early humans likely ate animal flesh, as God did not expressly forbid it, Genesis 9 elucidates that before the Flood, regular consumption of meat must have been rare.

That, of course, depends on a literal interpretation of Genesis.

The author adds, “Almost all nations have traditions of a golden age of innocence, when men abstained from killing animals.”

As with the Great Flood, then, the idea seems to be based in history more than in mythology.

Take-aways regarding Genesis 1:29 and diet

• Even if the whole of the beginning of Genesis was written figuratively, there is likely historical basis in the symbolism and beliefs.
• Yeshua didn’t come to teach nutrition. He was also a product of His own culture, which thrived on a mix of fish and plant food.
• Archeology provides hearty evidence that the earliest humans ate a 100% plant diet.
• Science overwhelmingly shows the health benefits of eating mostly plants over eating mostly meat. No one ever got healed of heart disease on a high-meat diet.
• We are not to judge other people based on what they eat, because we are all on a different journey.
• We are, however, as children of God to be conscientious about how we treat the rest of His creation.
• None of us can say for sure whether God originally bestowed a vegan diet upon people for their sustenance. Not while we’re here.

So eat according to your conscience and common sense, and stop dissing those who disagree with you.

You might be the one who’s wrong.😜

(For more inspiring content like this, you can follow this blog if you have a Google account, bookmark this blog, follow my blog on Goodreads, and/or check out the books in the sidebar.) 

Autism and Christianity: A Difficult Marriage

 

PIN THIS, PLEASE - Autism and Christianity

 

Can autistic people be Christians? It’s a fair question, given that a disproportionate number of autistics are homosexual, trans, and/or either irreligious or into witchcraft or New Age spirituality. I’m not going to get into my theories as to why that may be. Beyond stating that the brain of an autistic is wired differently – some more differently than others – compared to that of a neurotypical, even the experts don’t know.

As far as whether an autistic person can be a Christian, well, here I am.

“But, isn’t autism demonic??”

*SIGH.* I suppose if you’re convinced that the common cold, Down’s syndrome, and being born with two differently colored eyes is demonic, then I won’t be able to convince you otherwise regarding autism.

For the rest of you who can think rationally, no, autism is not demonic. Nor is it a mental illness, though it easily leads to various mental illnesses, especially depression, anxiety, and OCD.

Why would anyone think autism comes from the satan?

Because they don’t understand the condition. They don’t understand that their baby or toddler is banging their head against the wall because they’re overwhelmed with stimulation – the bright lights, the non-stop talking and music, the disgusting tastes and textures being forced down their throats – and so they have to do something to release the stress build-up. Or to whack their neurological system back into balance.

People don’t understand that the staring all day at a ceiling fan or spinning plate or flushing toilet isn’t a sign of mental deficiency or demonic possession or the lack of desire to connect with other people, but a sign of fascination with the motion, or the need for more brain stimulation, or the need to escape from the other environmental stimulations.

People don’t understand that the child’s inability to speak in fluent sentences by age two like little Johnny next door can, is likely because their brain is developing more slowly than average. And most autistics who never are able to speak are able to figure out how to communicate in some way, at some point in their childhood – even if the way is difficult for their parents to understand.

Christians, especially those of the charismatic/Pentecostal/Full Gospel ilk, are notorious for demonizing phenomenon which they don’t understand. Praying for “deliverance” for someone whose brain developed differently in utero than the brains of most other people is both tragic and dumb.

It also does nothing to bring the autistic person closer to Christ. It will have the opposite effect, in fact.

“But so and so prayed for their kid and the autism went away!”

Autism isn’t a disease. It’s not something that requires healing. If a parent prays for a child who’s been diagnosed with autism and suddenly the child’s behavior becomes that of a neurotypical child, they probably had something else going on that was causing them to engage in disconcerting self-stimulation activities.

Or, while the parents were praying, they set up a structured day chock-full of activities for the child. Having interesting and stimulating things to do all day, and having a structure that made them feel safer because they no longer had to struggle against an executive function that was broken, they no longer felt as strong a need to try to regulate their nervous systems by head-banging, hand-flapping, or incessant rocking.

That stimming that sends parents running to their pediatricians in a panic in the first place? Yeah, it’s essential for us. If we are experiencing the slightest bit of stress or the least bit of boredom, our neurological systems get out of balance. The rocking, swaying on feet, humming, skin-picking, hair-sucking or twirling, hand-flapping, head-banging, foot or finger tapping, all of those stims somehow, for some reason, help our brains feel more together.

Let’s cut to the chase even further: the stimming helps us feel not crazy. Or, in many cases, helps us to find words or dig for creative ideas a lot more easily than if we just sit or stand still.

Those actions are not symptoms of demon possession or mental illness.

So if you’re wondering what the Bible says about autism, it says as much about it as it does about ADHD, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Tourette’s syndrome.

Nothing.

EXCEPT.

Yeshua’s command to love one’s neighbor included everyone, regardless of brain function.

Now, before I dive into my personal experience as an autistic Christian, I think it’s pertinent to address a concept that has popped up in this age of ableism.

That is, disability theology.

Disability theology in a nutshell.

There are a lot of definitions around this phrase. Basically, it has to do with the question, “How does God see disabled people?” Closely associated with that is the idea that if a person is deaf, blind, in a wheelchair, has Down’s syndrome, or – yes – is autistic, they have a problem and need to be prayed for. And if they get prayed for and still have the problem, they must be in sin. Or not have enough faith.

It’s the same as often happens when a church member develops a terminal disease or chronic ailment. Only in the case of disability, the person is in this state for their entire life, or most of their life, or at least decades of their life.

And in some segments of Christianity, inclusion in the church is a foreign concept, and would-be disabled worshippers are sidelined and marginalized.

Because they are not “healed” or “whole.”

It’s sad that disability theology is even a thing, because the people of God are supposed to accept others for who they are, and understand that our Father has them on a particular journey for a particular reason. We aren’t supposed to be getting up on our thrones of judgment and pride and wondering why on earth everyone else can’t be as perfect as we obviously are.

Okay, tongue back out of cheek. Let me talk about a few issues I have faced as an autistic Christian.

Sensory sensitivities in church.

One day, I felt God calling me to join the church choir. Not too many weeks after, I was having to put earplugs in my ear before every singing time. It was a church that played modern music with modern instruments… and that had speakers behind the choir risers.

It was already too loud (for me) to be in the front row of the sanctuary when the band was playing.

The lights didn’t bother me so much, but I know that’s another issue many autistic people have to deal with when out in public. But the women’s perfume? The men’s cologne? Some days, I couldn’t leave the building fast enough so I could take a deep breath of the nitrogen oxide-infused outside air. Seriously. You can complain about air pollution from cars all you want, but give me Dallas air during a summer rush hour over artificial body scents any day.

Then, there were the communication challenges in church.

While I attended the particular Christian fellowship where I joined the choir, I also participated in that place’s singles group. One of the most steadfast members of not only that group, but the church fellowship as a whole, was a guy around the age of sixty named Freddie. Until I began writing this article, I had considered him to be a simpleton. Mildly mentally deficient, you might say. He worked a blue collar job – car mechanic, if memory serves – and had weathered skin, a shy smile, wrinkles around eyes that never quite met yours, and a relatively short stature. He was quiet, and when standing in a small circle where others were conversing, his single contribution would be, “I’m just glad I’m saved.” (Hear that with a deep Texas drawl.)

But after years of not thinking about the man, Freddie came into my mind just as I was writing the heading about communication. And I realized: he wasn’t a simpleton.

He was autistic.

And like most autistic people who are verbal, he had a standard thing he’d memorized so he could properly fit in socially.

That’s less of a problem for me, because I also have ADHD, which makes me a kind of motor mouth at times. But when in large groups, I become a wallflower, and if I haven’t thought ahead of time of questions to ask other people or topics to bring up, my brain gets stuck.

And even when it’s not stuck, it sometimes takes a few tries to get out exactly what I want to say. And when I say, “exact,” I mean, “sort of, almost, close enough.”

I may have forgotten about Freddie, but I will never, ever forget the singles Sunday school class we were having one day when the guy who’d been leading it for several years turned to me and said, “Emily, when I first met you I thought you were a dingbat.”

He’d been going around the room, talking about how he’d gotten to know and love each of us. While I appreciated his past tense of the comment, it felt like a slap in the face.

I wouldn’t know I was autistic for another twenty-some-odd years, and I had no idea that I came off like an idiot when I was attempting to converse with other people.

I didn’t realize I would get on a topic I enjoyed and harp on it in a stream-of-consciousness sort of way, continuing to talk long after everyone around me had lost interest in what I was saying.

So if you attend a Christian fellowship and have someone in the congregation who struggles with proper verbal expression, do me and them a favor and give them a break. And a lot of patience. Because it is often the diversity of communication that creates a problem around autism and finding belonging in church.

But the most intense of my neurodivergence and struggles with my faith have occurred outside the walls of a sanctioned worship building.

 

Autism and religious anxiety.

If you take nothing else away from this post, I want you to learn this about autistic people: most of us have a serious problem with rigid thinking. We read something that connects with us at a deep level, and even if it’s completely wrong, or doesn’t fit us later in our lives, we latch onto it like a piranha to its prey and refuse to let it go.

Therefore, autistics who are raised in a religion generally have one of two responses to what they learn.

They believe everything they’re taught until it hurts.

Or.

None of it makes any sense and they walk away from it as soon as they can.

I was the former.

And I was raised Catholic.

If that doesn’t mean anything to you, back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the Catholic church’s greatest talent was making you feel guilty. Not that evangelical Protestant churches never do that, but the Catholic church has had centuries of practice. It’s very good – or used to be before it took a political left turn – at making its members feel guilty.

For not going to confession.

For not praying the rosary.

For not believing Mary is the Mother of God.

For not going to church every Sunday.

For eating before taking the Eucharist.

I could go on and on, but you get my drift.

The Holy Spirit protected me from believing some of the very wrong doctrines the denomination teaches, but I still lived under the fear that if I didn’t toe the line, God’s judgment would befall me.

Leaving Catholicism and joining a charismatic evangelical church in my mid-twenties only slightly alleviated the problem. Because in that new place of worship, you weren’t a real Christian unless you went to all three services during the week. You were “less than” if you didn’t do some sort of volunteer work for the church – even if you were highly sensitive and therefore suffered from constant anxiety and could barely handle your day job. You were supposed to pray for fifteen, thirty, sixty minutes every day – depending on who you asked – and have a morning Bible devotional before you left for work. If you were married, you were expected to have a passel of kids.

You couldn’t say negative things – however true they might be – without someone scolding you for making a “bad confession,” and you were an infidel if you didn’t tithe.

Those who gave more than ten percent to the building/leaders/organization were favorites.

One huge thing that came from both denominations I experienced was that if you had a talent or gift, God had given it to you to glorify Him, so you’d better use it that way, or else!

That’s where much of my religious anxiety landed in the years after the Lord led my husband and I to walk away from the institutional church. If I wasn’t part of a “local body,” how could I serve?

Wait! I know – start a YouTube channel! Except that’s not nearly as easy as it looks. Plus much of the lifestyle my family has chosen (namely, living in a very small house) makes creating videos difficult.

Okay then, I can write novels and teach through stories! That worked for a while, but the longer I did it, the more it felt like the wrong thing to do.

Maybe I should just focus on the simple homesteading life, I thought. But when I tried to grow a garden, I discovered that disease runs rampant in this part of the country, making it an exercise in frustration.

During the past decade, I’ve gone weeks being angry at God. The anger came from the guilt, guilt that I wasn’t doing enough. Could never do enough due to the choices I’d made.

My thinking around the issue was more rigid than granite, and it took many trials and many meltdowns and many years before I found out that God.

Did not.

Create me.

To do.

He created me to be.

To experience. To love. To enjoy His blessings.

Yes, a part of those blessings come from the things I do, and I certainly am the last person on Earth who would advise any Christian to sit around eating snacks and watching Netflix while praying for God to supernaturally pay the light bill.

But instead of following Him on a daily basis, I was running after what I thought – or what other people were telling me – I should be doing to bless the world with my time, skills, and talents.

But there’s an even greater facet to autism and spirituality that has promoted religious anxiety.

Autistic people are inherently self-centered.

Let me explain.

Autism presents differently in every single one of us with the condition. But the one thing we all have in common is that we live mostly inside of our own heads.

Fifty percent of diagnosed autistic people are unable to empathize with others on an emotional level. On an intellectual level, maybe. But not emotional.

Those of us who can feel empathy nevertheless struggle to understand why our way of thinking might be wrong and someone else’s might be right. We struggle to see other people’s perspectives, struggle to understand why other people don’t understand us.

Because of the rigid thinking, we believe that our logic is the right logic.

And so we tend to be critical and judgmental and not realize that our critiques and judgments are hurting other people. We tend to make decisions to serve our own needs.

We’re self-centered.

Christians aren’t supposed to be self-centered. If I really have the Spirit of God living inside of me, I should automatically be the opposite.

Yet, I have to make a conscious effort to put others’ needs and desires before mine. I have to work to see a situation from someone else’s perspective. And I mean, work hard.

Especially if that perspective is the opposite of mine.

Throughout my thirteen-year teaching career, I felt guilty that I could never feel nurturing toward my students. I sometimes feel guilty that I couldn’t be the epitome of the nurturing mother for my son when he was younger.

Because, through no fault of my own, I live in my head.

I have to make the choice to show affection, care, love. Such things simply don’t come naturally to me. Or, probably, to most autistics.

This is why I say that autism and Christianity makes for a difficult marriage. But I believe with all of my heart that autism and faith is a match worth fighting for.

I’m not sure where I’d be today without God’s grace.

(For more inspiring content like this, you can follow this blog if you have a Google account, bookmark this blog, follow my blog on Goodreads, and/or check out the books in the sidebar.) 

Why Do Christians Suffer? (And how this question has changed my life!)

PLEASE PIN THIS! Why do Christians suffer?

  Why do Christians suffer? That God allows suffering for the world seems to be a no-brainer. God is supposed to protect and bless believers and punish non-believers.

Besides the blatant fact that this isn’t how life goes, this belief represents a sad misunderstanding of God’s character, an issue I will talk about in a later post.

For the moment, I want to focus on Christian suffering. Because I am a Christian, and right now, I’m suffering just about as much as I ever have.

Let’s get one of the more popular questions on the topic out of the way, simply because it’s easy to answer.

Why do Christians face trials?

The answer to that question is found in the book of the Bible that contains the most direct, in-your-face, and comprehensive advice for believers: James. Recognizing that suffering was a major issue that his brothers and sisters in Christ struggled with, he addressed it right out of the gate, in the second verse of the first chapter of his famous epistle.

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness [James 1:2]….”

God allows trials to come to test our faith so that we can become stronger. When we grow stronger, we grow more loving, more patient, more able to resist temptation and more courageous in the face of persecution.

Without trials, we would remain like babies in diapers, always dependent on others to take care of us, no ability to live out a meaningful life that glorifies Him.

Thus, there is a distinct purpose of suffering for Christians. Yeah, I know, it would be totally cool if God would make it so that we could be spiritual powerhouses without having to go through hardships, but if that were the case, Christianity would become a commodity.

Let me explain.

The proper Christian perspective on pain.

I once had a Christian friend who began dating an atheist. He eventually became a Christian, but struggled with the hard fact that God allows innocent children to die. One day, he woke up with a revelation swimming through his head: if God protected every child, they would be exploited. They would be taken onto planes, into war zones, etc., because the adults using them would know they would be safe as long as a child was at their side.

In other words, children would become commodities.

 So it is with suffering and faith. If God automatically protected everyone who claimed faith in salvation by Yeshua’s blood, everyone would become a Christian. Not people who cared about God’s holiness or having a relationship with their heavenly Father. Not people who wanted to worship their Creator. Christianity would be even fuller of selfish and self-centered people who justify their sins than it is now.

And, the freedom to choose God, to accept Christ, would be nullified. Nobody likes to suffer or experience pain. So the “choice” to follow Yeshua wouldn’t be much of a choice at all.

Christianity would become a commodity.

Instead, God gives us a real choice. We can go through hardships without His presence and guidance, but with the apparent freedom to live without having to follow moral laws. Or, we can experience God’s comfort in suffering, which, according to our Savior, is certain to include at one point or another persecution for our belief. And that’s all while having to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling (see Phillipians 2:12), because believers are to be ever mindful of the Lord’s holiness and how we are to be pursuing it.

So you see that the choice to become a Christian is not an easy one. It may end up bringing more trials than keeping Yeshua at the end of a ten foot pole!

Still, you might continue to find this idea, that a Supreme Being who is supposedly good allows suffering and pain, to be hard to swallow. So let’s go a little deeper.

If God is good, why is there suffering?

People, regardless of their spiritual bent, experience hardships and trials of all kinds. You might think you’re alone in that aspect, based on the happy faces everyone shows on social media. But those happy faces hide a world of hurt. And most of those faces secretly demand a reason for their suffering.

What follows are those reasons, aside from the trials God either sends or allows in order to grow His people’s faith. I end with the reason most pertinent to me at the present time.

Reason #1: We live in a fallen world.

Yeshua promised that in this world, we would have tribulation. Why? Because people sin. I know that’s not a popular word nowadays, and no wonder. We moderns have reached the point where we think we can do life all by ourselves with no help from the Divine, and we don’t want to be told we’re doing something wrong.

The word “sin” comes from the Greek word hamartanó, and enfolded within the word is the idea of having deviated from God’s law, or of having failed morally. The word in ancient Greek was often associated with archery, when an archer didn’t hit the target (see this page at the BibleHub site). In the New Testament, it’s used metaphorically to refer to people breaching their relationship with God by breaking the divine law of love.

Let me break down the “fallen world” thing as it relates to suffering.

When we aren’t walking in divine love, we are selfish.

When we are selfish, we think only of our own wants and needs, ignoring those of others.

When only a small fraction of humankind is living selfishly, they make choices that cause others to suffer, and the suffering spreads like a ripple effect.

But it’s not just a small fraction of the Earth’s population who live selfishly. It’s the vast majority.

That we have produced so many problems on the planet, and well-meaning organizations attempting to solve certain problems end up conflicting with the goals of other well-meaning organizations trying to solve other problems, does nothing to improve the dilemma.

Reason #2: Demons attack unbelievers as well as believers.

Evil spiritual beings exist. They are real. They are not a myth invented by people trying to explain disease and bad luck. A person doesn’t have to believe that the Genesis 1 Creation story requires a literal interpretation to know that it has some basis in real events.

Just so, the serpentine creature’s temptation in the third chapter has basis in reality. The apostle Peter wasn’t being metaphorical when he wrote that “the devil roams about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour [1 Peter 5:8].”

Many Christians have seen demons; others of us have experienced, after telling the devil to go away, in Jesus’ name, a lifting of darkness or an oppressive feeling.

I don’t believe that the enemy of our soul causes nearly the number of trials that some do. For most of us, our stupidity, impulsivity, and sin do the devil’s job without him having to lift a single finger. But sometimes, diseases or accidents are instigated by the invisible realm of the spirit. Once in a great while, a demon directly incites a person to abuse, assault, or murder another.

But those negative thoughts that keep going through your brain? They might equally be caused by the whisper from the dark spirit realm as they are by a brain chemical imbalance. And those whispers bring you down so low that you lose all perspective and all ability to make wise decisions, leading to pain and trials you may otherwise not have faced.

Reason #3: God is disciplining.

The verse from which this reason comes, Hebrews 12:6, has been improperly explained due to the misunderstanding of the original word. God doesn’t make you sick or fall off a ladder and break several bones in order to discipline you. Nor does He cause your boss to fire you or your spouse to leave you.

Rather, His discipline is a strong conviction that is almost physically painful. When it brings suffering, it’s because we ignore the conviction and continue on in our sin. An ongoing fleshly struggle against what we know is right can lead to depression and feelings of low self-esteem, which can lead to further personal problems.

While the Bible verse specifically mentions God’s people, I’m not sure God doesn’t discipline non-believers as well. There are those who pray and have faith in a higher power, and who are therefore one step away from entering God’s Kingdom. I can’t be positive, but I have a hunch that such people experience God’s loving discipline on occasion, too.

Reason #4: We make bad choices.

Ah, and here we land on the reason for my current suffering.

I got in a hurry. And ignored the past.

That’s the long and the short of it. I was impatient to finish a particular task, and I made a decision similar to other decisions under similar circumstances, ending with the same result: I injured myself.

For the past three plus weeks I have been swearing up and down that this is the last time. I will never assume my back is strong enough to handle a certain task. If I feel the slightest inkling that it is not, I will either approach the task from a safer angle or ask one of the males in my household to do the job.

Here’s how everything unraveled.

First, because I was in a hurry to finish a certain task (not to mention, in a circumstance that made the task much harder), I incurred a minor injury of my lower back and piriformis muscles.

Second, I didn’t rest long enough, and I dove back into my regular activities (including full squats) much sooner than my injuries dictated. If I had only taken the time then to research the time frame of muscle strain healing.

So, two weeks later, I made a series of moves (including a full squat for about thirty seconds) that resulted in not only aggravating the existing injuries, but adding to them.

Including nerve damage.

But wait – that’s not all! Third, less than a week later, sick of lying and sitting around all day and needing to move – and afraid that if I didn’t, my muscles and cartilage would turn into spaghetti – I tried an exercise that didn’t bother my back.

An exercise my body wasn’t used to. Involving my legs.

And I damaged both of my knees as well as causing nerve compression on both lower legs. Which led to more time in bed, increased cabin fever, and a constant struggle with depression.

God didn’t do this to me. The devil didn’t do this to me. No choice of any other human being did this to me.

I did it to myself. I caused my own physical suffering, which has led to emotional suffering. I hate sitting around, and I feel guilty that my husband has had to pick up most of my chores for so long.

The real clincher is, this is far from the first time that I’ve done something like this to myself (although I have to say I really outdid myself with this one). That might be the worst. For somebody so smart, I keep doing stupid things, stupid things that cause me physical pain and hinder my progress toward reaching my goals.

Did you see that? My progress. My goals.

Not God’s.

The truth of the matter is that even those of us who want to live lives that please our heavenly Father, we often get off track. We forget to live in the moment, so we get in a hurry. We prioritize our tasks and goals above those which the Lord has for us (see the story of Mary and Martha in the book of Luke). We allow fear to enter into our minds, and so we make decisions and choices based on fear, rather than faith and careful thought. All of these things lead us into a pain of our own making.

But the good news is, there is hope in the midst of any kind of suffering, even that of our own making. The hope is that this, too, shall pass, and that despite our mistakes, God will make everything turn out all right. The hope is that Yeshua doesn’t abandon us when we’re stuck on stupid.

We can also find strength and God’s comfort in suffering. How we do that, what it looks like, and how we grow, vary from individual to individual, from circumstance to circumstance.

If I didn’t believe God allows bad things to happen in order to force me into a corner to reconsider my life, I believe it now.

Here’s what I’ve gleaned from my experience so far.

 The blessings of suffering at my own foolish hands.

I’ve learned that I must listen to the tiniest, quietest complaint of my body when I’m involved in physical activity.

I’ve learned that the world doesn’t end because I go out of commission for a few weeks.

I’ve learned that I couldn’t care less about playing the guitar. And that I care a lot less about singing that I previously believed.

I’ve learned that I really, really want to improve my piano-playing skills (I haven’t been able to practice much lately because both sitting and standing for any longer than a couple of minutes lead to acute discomfort).

I’ve learned, once again, that my husband is a saint (I saw it a decade ago when I broke my arm and needed surgery).

I’ve learned that as long as I keep my mind busy, I don’t need to be running around like the Energizer Bunny on steroids.

I’ve learned what I want to do more than anything right now is learn new things and study.

The flip side of that is, I don’t know that I ever want to write another novel again, or be traditionally published **(more on that later). I’ve realized that my passion and talent for learning and teaching is much greater than my passion for writing fiction.

The second most important thing I've gleaned from this experience is that I am, for the first time, determined to do what it takes to get fit, and stay fit. I want a strong back, and I want to stop being so fragile and weak. 

I definitely don't want to end up looking like what my 88-year-old mother looks like, all bent over with muscles limp as spaghetti.

Perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learned these past few weeks?

I CAN relax. I CAN sit around and do next to nothing, and enjoy it.  For two to three days, anyway.

Not only that, but if I do so in short bursts every few weeks, it feels like a vacation. My Energizer Bunny self has always proclaimed that the word “relax” isn’t in my vocabulary, that I always need to be doing something.

Turns out I was wrong.

I do need a literal Sabbath once in a while.

And, whaddaya know? I enjoy not being stressed.

I also learned that maybe, just maybe, God’s will for me is to be much more than to do.

This is how I am overcoming suffering through faith. How about you?

(For more inspiring content like this, you can follow this blog if you have a Google account, bookmark this blog, follow my blog on Goodreads, and/or check out the books in the sidebar.) 

**always take my declarations regarding my writing career with a grain of salt