{"id":2441516,"date":"2019-03-09T17:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T00:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/glenn-k-beaton-conversations-in-the-dark\/"},"modified":"2019-03-09T17:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T00:36:00","slug":"glenn-k-beaton-conversations-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/glenn-k-beaton-conversations-in-the-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"Glenn K. Beaton: Conversations in the dark"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a cold and it\u2019s a broken Hallelujah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Leonard Cohen<\/p>\n

God is just the explanation that people concoct for those random moments when the pain of life eases. That\u2019s what I was told one dark night as I was going through a rough patch and heard a raspy voice in my ear taunting me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a God in heaven, then why all the pain, lies and destruction on Earth?\u201d asked the voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s also a lot of beauty and joy,\u201d I replied. I\u2019ve seen it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh? Like what?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen the beauty in children laughing. I\u2019ve seen the joy of a new mother. I\u2019ve seen that life is not all pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHa! I\u2019ll leave to your imagination the details about what I sometimes do to mothers and children. But have you ever seen and heard a pack of wolves separate a fawn from a doe and then attack and start to eat the fawn before it\u2019s even dead, while the doe watches helplessly?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMultiply that a million times and apply it to your human world. It\u2019s evil and it\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was on a roll. \u201cHave you noticed how humans identify their tribe not by what they love, but by what they hate? I make hate, and hate makes the world go around. It doesn\u2019t matter to a group that they\u2019re all Republicans or Democrats, or all Phi Delta Thetas or all Bronco fans. What matters is that they all hate the Democrats or Republicans, or hate the Sigma Tau Gammas or hate the Kansas City Chiefs. It doesn\u2019t matter that.\u201d<\/p>\n

I interrupted. \u201cBut there\u2019s good in humanity, too. You can\u2019t deny it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s good, you say? Ha! Next, you\u2019ll be telling me there\u2019s truth and beauty. OK, I\u2019ll stipulate that there\u2019s good, too, whatever that is. But in the end, I always win. And it will hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, maybe not. Some people die in their sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t fool yourself. Just because they\u2019re found dead in the morning doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ve died in their sleep. Do you think a heart attack or stroke doesn\u2019t hurt just because it happens at night? I wake them before I take them. Because I want them to feel both the pain and the fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI own this world,\u201d he lied, \u201cand I made it hard because I like to see you suffer. You won\u2019t get out alive. You won\u2019t get out painlessly. And you won\u2019t get out unafraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGo to hell. I\u2019m not afraid of you,\u201d I exaggerated. \u201cThere\u2019s another way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShut up!\u201d he barked. \u201cl was cheated that time!\u201d<\/p>\n

The voice quickly regained the cloying slyness with which it began our conversation. Lawyer-like, he demanded, \u201cNow answer my question: If there\u2019s a God, then why\u2019s there so much pain on Earth?\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard that question before, and I have an answer: \u201cBecause this isn\u2019t heaven. It\u2019s Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOK, that\u2019s a nice pat answer,\u201d the voice replied. \u201cNow I have a follow-up question: Why? Why is this Earth and not heaven?\u201d<\/p>\n

The voice had the momentum in our debate and went in for the kill. \u201cGod is just the explanation from dolts like you for the random moments when their pain eases. But their pain will be back \u2014 I\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was on the defensive now. I replied softly, really to myself, \u201cI don\u2019t know why Earth isn\u2019t Heaven. I don\u2019t know why you can spread pain, lies and hatred. I don\u2019t know why you can destroy good people. I don\u2019t know why you exist. There\u2019s lots that I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

I paused for what seemed like an eternity.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we need to see the bad in order to comprehend the good. Maybe God doesn\u2019t control everything. Maybe the struggle for the universe is ongoing. I can\u2019t comprehend God or how he works. I can\u2019t imagine what he\u2019s up against. But I believe in him.\u201d<\/p>\n

I looked up. \u201cAnd I believe that in the end he will save those who want saving. He will beat you. And he\u2019ll save us whether we\u2019ve earned it or not. He\u2019s a saving God, not a transactional God. Unlike you, God doesn\u2019t make deals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHa!\u201d The voice always laughed not out of amusement, but out of mockery. \u201cWhat kind of God is this? Is he only partially omnipotent but wholly inscrutable? Better to make a deal with me than to take your chances with this fickle God of yours that goes missing right when you need him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gloating, the voice stared at me.<\/p>\n

Then there was thunder and lightning in the distance. It stormed ever closer, louder and brighter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gotta go,\u201d he hissed urgently. \u201cBut I\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then it rained and rained as the dawn broke. Hallelujah.<\/p>\n

Correspond and subscribe at theAspenbeat@gmail.com<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s a cold and it\u2019s a broken Hallelujah.\u201d \u2014 Leonard Cohen God is just the explanation that people concoct for those random moments when the pain of life eases. That\u2019s what I was told one dark night as I was going through a rough patch and heard a raspy voice in my ear taunting me. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2441516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 03:40:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2441516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2441516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2441516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2441516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}