What I hope to teach my child

One of the things I've been mulling around in my head since Katrina hit is this whole "Why does God do stuff like this to his people?" thing. I see lots of faithful folks really struggling against it, and it makes me sad. Because I don't believe God does stuff like this to us. I think... well, let's see if I can articulate it... Shit happens. Years ago, I realized this regarding choices and consequences in my own little life. I went into the studio with my band, looking high and low for signs that this was or was not "the right thing to do," believing that if I just made sure I was doing the right thing, everything would work out well. Yeah, $10k in debt and no band and no CD later, I thought God had tricked me. Hey, Mr. Dude-in-Sandals, I was trying to do "your will" or whatever, so why did everything fall apart around me? Oh, duh. I made a choice. I didn't like the consequences. End of story. God wasn't punishing me. I wasn't being "tested." Really, the suffering was my choice too. I could've just looked at the consequences and said, "huh, well...that didn't work. Let's try something else." instead of wallowing in grief for months on end. Now, gigantic big-ass natural disasters are a whole 'nother story, I realize. And my theory breaks down when it comes to tiny babies and starvation in Darfur and Hitler. Bear with me, I'm working this out. But maybe the choices/consequences thing is also true on a macro level, for the whole freakin' world. We make choices, they have consequences. If we don't like 'em, it's not God's fault. It's our RESPONSIBLITY to step up and try to make them better. And sometimes, random shit happens. The only purpose I can see in them -- beyond such impersonal global effects like "flooding is good for re-fertilizing the soil" or whatnot -- is that they serve to remind us how fragile we are, how much we need each other, and (most of the time) how truly wonderful people can be. I read about a guy in California who just rented a Lear Jet, filled it full of food and diapers and stuff, and flew it to LA. Then he flew back with dozens of people. I see my neighbors in Austin doing huge acts of kindness...and small ones, like setting up a beauty parlor in the Convention Center so the ladies can get their hair did. So, what I hope to teach my child is that shit happens -- painful stuff we can't understand, even grownups. What matters is what we try to do with it. More musings to come, I'm sure. I just wanted to start trying to sort this out in my head, and writing's how I do it.