Hand back the fruit
I’ve recently had conversations with younger Christian friends who have been reeling from experiences and observations of confounding evil. As a man more than double the age of the friends I have in mind, I can vouch that comprehending what appears to be senseless evil doesn’t get easier the longer you live. Perhaps that sounds discouraging, especially since I remember, as a younger Christian, hoping I’d have greater wisdom in my golden years. After all, isn’t sagacity part of “the splendour of . . . grey hair” (Proverbs 20:29)? I hope this is true of me. But as I grow older, I’m discovering that the more significant part of wisdom isn’t accumulating a more excellent knowledge of good and evil so much as learning how to deal more faithfully with my deficit of such knowledge. So, if I have any wisdom worth imparting to Christians struggling with incomprehensible evil, it lies in cultivating the spiritual discipline of handing back the fruit. Problem of Evil Theologians and philosophers ...