Only God Understands It All

I've been listening to Rabbi Bruce Cohen of Congregation Beth El of Manhattan lately. Over the last few weeks he has delivered some humbling messages about some of the things in the world that we can't expect to understand. Tell the little girl pulled from the rubble in Haiti that God is just, that everything happens for a reason. Tell the innocent man on death row that God rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. Tell the few remaining survivors of Auschwitz that all Israel will be saved. There are hard truths somewhere in these things, but in this lifetime I might never know what they are.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio..."

A Rod for the Backs of Fools

In the introduction to A Commentary on Marriage in the Bible, I wrote,

I realize the irony of a divorced man writing a book on marriage. My only defense is that I was once much more a fool than I am today, and change did not come easily.

That statement becomes more true every day. I can’t help but look back at myself with amazement. How did I bear myself? How did God bear me? Even as I know that I am less a fool today than yesterday, the reminder is humbling. Tomorrow I will be even less the fool, which means I am still a fool today.

My stripes have been painfully earned, but I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I consider each one a mile marker on a one-way road. Each one brings me one step closer to the man God wants me to be.