The class came up with two answers:
1. Burdens are the consequences of sin.
2. God gives you burdens to test you.
These are all well and good, but if all burdens are the result of one of these two, boy are we in trouble.
If all burdens and trials came from sin or from God, then we have no way to account for actual catastrophes.
Let me demonstrate with the expected example: the Holocaust. OK, nobody would ever say that the Holocaust was the consequence of sin. However, saying that God gave that trial to the men, women, and children in the concentration camps and those who only made it as far as the gas chambers, or the ghettos, etc, because He wanted to test them is just as problematic. What kind of God tests people like that? Or the rape of a child (or rape in general)? How is that a test for that child? What kind of God does that to His children?
If you believe in the above reasons for burdens/trials/etc, then you are probably at a loss to explain such things, to come to terms with real catastrophe. And that is exactly my point. Either you hate yourself for bringing it upon you, or you hate God for doing it to you. Neither one helps.
Now, I think we need to add three more possibilities to this list. First, that sometimes burdens are the consequences of other's actions. With this comes the understanding that God values our agency very very highly. So much so that He would rather let bad things happen then interfere. Second, sometimes burdens are simply consequences, of good AND bad decisions. Yes, sometimes good decisions come with trials. And third, that sometimes shit happens. Sometimes you go through a rough time or bad things happen to you (and others) because that's life.
And all of this would be most helpful if it comes with the idea that life isn't about what happens to you, or why it happened, but what you do with it.
wow, allllllll that and u curse at the very end? smh.
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