Questions of Faith...

So where do I start...
A friend of mine whom I'll call Shakey who has his own blog is having problems with life, business, and faith. He sits down and because of his upbringing, and current conditions he starts to question both his faith, as well as the existence of God. Understandable. When you are pushed to the brink during a crisis, you start to re-evaluate everything in an attempt to "fix" things. The problem is Shakey has yet to resolve is crisis of faith, he is still searching for answers, and every time he gets one question answered, three more open up. This is a perfectly natural event, people who are in that sort of self examination mode will have that happen till all of their doubt is either confirmed or disbanded. The thing is Shakey is being very open with this personal conflict he is in and has made some very interesting comments about churches, faith, and such, as well as posted some very interesting questions for discussion on his blog.
So then we have Dude, who in response to an e-mail by Shakey issues some very interesting comments, in response. Now it is not that Dude is anti- anything, it is just his perspective is a bit different from others. He is an upstanding guy and has always treated others fairly and been willing to engage in fair and open debate on issues. This is one of those times when Dude has decided to open up debate on the e-mail that Shakey sent . Here are some bits from his posting

• God won’t ask what kind of car you drove. He’ll ask how many people
  you drove who didn’t have transportation.
• God won’t ask the square footage of your house. He’ll ask how many
  people you welcomed into your home.
• God won’t ask about the clothes in your closet. He’ll ask how many you
  helped to clothe.

There are others, and I can describe them all in only one way… bullshit. Let me explain. There are things in this life I can control and there are things I can’t. I am responsible for the things I can control. I pray over the things I can’t control. I act on the things I can. That’s it

Dude, what you just described is faith... You control your life and pray for guidance/protection against that which affects you but you cannot change.

We all possess the strength and ability to live well. Let’s go get ‘er done and quit blaming God or pretending that we have an inside track on howGod will judge us. Results speak for themselves

Well said. We should not sit around and blame God, or feel sorry for what has happened to us. Does God allow bad things to happen, yes or else we would still be living in the Garden of Eden. Those that have true faith are those that have the will power to stand up and continue to fight for what they want even when they get knocked down. It is those that are willing to end up battered and bloodied in the fight for success that are the real winners. People who sit around and whine and complain about how their lot in life is so horrible are the ones that are looking for a hand up. God is in everyone who believes in him, and he may not give you a hand up when you are knocked down, but he is there to encourage you when that happens and to pat you on the back when you succeed despite all the evil and inequity in the world. The best example I could put forth for Shakey is in the Book of Job.

In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless
and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. 2 He had seven sons and three
daughters, 3 and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five
hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of
servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

Follow the rest of the story if you do not know it. Basically Satan questions Job's faith and God, tells him to test him. So Satan does everything that he can to make him "curse" at the lord, but despite all that he is put through, Job accepts the things that are happening to him as out of his control and prays to God to help him deal with these troubles, all the while he continues to live his life as well as he possibly can, and with the same faith, and desire to be a good person as he had when he was prosperous and healthy.

So the lesson of life that Dude talks about is just reinforced in the Book of Jobe.