What Twila Paris and C.S. Lewis get wrong.
How does God interact with the world? Does God directly manage and determine the course of global and human events? Many Christians think so. Several years ago a parishioner who was dying of cancer and had only days left said to me, “I know there must be a reason for this.” She was not asking me what I thought. She was telling me how she made sense of her suffering and impending death. It was not the time to engage her theology. I simply tried to be a pastoral presence in her final days. Not long ago I inquired about another friend fighting cancer. She informed me it was in remission, which she attributed to the power of prayer. She spoke of a song that meant a lot to her, which she had been listening to and “affirming in her heart.” The song is by Twila Paris and proclaims, God is in control We believe that his children will not be forsaken God is in control We will choose to remember and never be shaken There is no power above or beside him, we know Oh, God is in cont...