Rabbi's Message

                                         Reflections on the Challenges of Life

                                            A Message for the New Year

          There is a story about a minister who goes into a hospital room to visit a congregant, a woman who is lying in the bed with excruciating pain. The minister proceeds to say to her, "Don't worry, my dear, God is testing you because He tests the good people." To which she says, "Well, in that case, Reverend, I wish that I hadn't been so good."This minister didn't get it quite right with respect to the great tests that we encounter in our lives.

          As Rabbi Harold Kushner helps us understand in his writings, God does not send us tests of misfortune - health setbacks, natural disasters, economic calamity. They are random events within the imperfect world that He created. But, more importantly, the Almighty gives us the strength to deal with these trials.

          Biblically, we see the greatest example of this, in the patriarch Abraham, whose life is chronicled in the initial chapters of Genesis. Abraham's very life was a series of tests. Among these trials, he had to leave the land of his birth, confront a devastating famine in the new land of Israel, and then be in the midst of a war among Canaanite kings. Finally, the greatest challenge of all was that being commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac atop Mount Moriah.

          Again, this was not about a cynical God punishing Abraham. Rather, these were unfortunate events in God's imperfect world such as acts of nature, war, and ancient peoples' tendencies to child sacrifice---the wrongness about which God wanted Abraham to learn atop the mountain. But through it all, helped by God, Abraham grew tremendously, becoming a pillar of faith and leader for his people.

          There is no doubt that many trials are coming our way in these times. The economic challenges has brought instability to many American families. Violence still stalks our society. Disease and sickness continue to challenge so many. But rather than blame God, we can look to Him for fortitude that He will give us, and try to come out of the other side of the dark tunnel stronger and better as people.

          Rabbi Sidney Greenberg, author of the book "A Treasury of Comfort," has written, "God sometimes puts us on our back, so that we might look up to Him." May this be in our hearts, as we - turning to God - respond to the challenges of our lives.