Hooks for Doubt

"Hooks to hang doubt on" was a phrase I wrote in chapter 11 of Love's Playbook 5. It describes a very important God-decision in the theory of freedom. God could wow us and overwhelm us with the reality of His existence, presence and power, but He doesn't. "They" don't because it would actually take away or ruin our freedom. In order for us to be truly free to make our own decision there has to be evidence of both good and evil that is balanced and adequate for us to consider and make a choice. There even have to be questions about God. Scripture says God is all good. But in some places it looks like God is both good and evil. This increasingly bothered me as I grew up. Maybe I started reading too young without guidance (though there weren't many Christians questioning this then). Years later I wanted to believe God was good, and wanted to understand those passages, I did find some help, but I found that most of the people I read, or talked to, weren't able to explain them. The collective consciousness hadn't grown enough to push scholarship to understand. I find it is beginning. Somehow it became very important to me to understand. I can't even say when or how it started. But it became a burning desire to know and show that God is all good--even in gnarly, hard-to-understand scriptures. I really didn't think about how. When the idea first came, it was so huge I dismissed it. When I actually began to consider writing a version of the Bible as a story making God look all good, I couldn't imagine how I would. I questioned writing the flood story before I committed to start. I did think that far ahead, but not further--it's in the first five chapters, and God said, "Don't worry. We'll help you." And They did! Now past the first five books, I don't worry about that--we have gone through some really difficult stories and concepts, and They have always made it plain. I realize in a translation you can't explain the background, emotion, etc., like I get to in telling the story.