Ireland radio and television broadcaster Gay Byrne once interviewed comedian and self-proclaimed atheist Stephen Fry.
Bryne asked Fry to imagine, for a moment, that God exists. Next, he asked Fry to tell him what he would ask God if he could ask one question.
Fry said he would ask why God allows all the world's unfairness and injustice — especially the suffering of those who have done nothing wrong. He said he refuses to believe in a God who does not make everyone’s life perfect.
Fry wanted to know why God doesn’t make everyone perfectly happy and content; why God allows suffering; why God doesn’t prevent inhumanity.
God created a perfect world. He created humanity in his own image. God also gave people the ability to make choices. To keep the world a paradise would have meant living in the manner God intended.
People used free choice to disobey God, succumb to temptation and seek personal gratification — so paradise crumbled.
That was not God's fault.
If we couldn't choose, God would simply be a heavenly dictator or tyrant. But in love, God allows us to make our own decisions.
Those decisions have consequences — for good or ill.
We are not forced to make the harmful or ill-conceived choices we do, but we do have to live with their results. And at times, we are forced to live with the consequences of others' decisions.
It is easy to celebrate choices' joyful results. The challenge, however, is, knowing what to do with the consequences of others’ harmful actions.
That we live in an imperfect world is not God’s fault. It is the fault of how humanity — each person on the face of the earth — exercises their God-given gift of free choice. And that freedom of choice even allows for persons to choose to not believe in the God who created them.
For many people, God is their enemy — to be battled, conquered and defeated. They do not realize the depth of love God has for them. The Bible is full of account after account showing how, in spite of people turning their backs on God, God continuously pursues humanity to win them — us — back.
It all comes down to choices.
People choose to believe or not, to obey or not, to seek something positive in every situation or not, to be joyful or not.
We each need to choose wisely.
The Rev. Mark Broadhead is pastor at Laurel Hill Presbyterian Church and First Presbyterian Church of Crestview.
Link to the Stephen Fry interview
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: BROADHEAD: Make wise decisions or accept the consequences