To answer this from bitter experience, it would have to be said that it’s a natural thing that someone who loses a person may blame God. What happens in the event of a loss is that there needs to be some rational explanation to the irrational. It’s a situation in life that is difficult for people to simply accept without question.
Death robs them of even having the time to say “goodbye” and filled with an emptiness only those who have experienced it can understand, the next best thing to do is to blame someone. Where God comes into the picture is fairly clear. No one wants to blame other people for death unless it’s justified. Blame is usually passed in God’s direction because God is, after all, responsible for the well-being of His children. Logically speaking, that’s how people see the situation, though what they may have missed is that because people are God’s children, he will also forgive them for the error of believing the death to be His fault.
The U.S. National Library of Medicine discusses the anger that people feel toward God and see it as being parallel to anger felt in worldly situations. Thus, anger toward God is a result of negative happenings, though adjustment to changed situations takes place which in turn quells that anger. It is interesting to note that lower numbers of people who felt anger toward God in this study came from African American and Methodist backgrounds.
From a Biblical point of view
How does the Christian faith see anger with God? From reading up on what people say about the fact that anger at God plays a part during negative times, one must remember and equate the experience with children being angry at a parent.
God’s children are entitled to feel anger just as children within a family are. It doesn’t lessen the burden of a mother to know that a child is angry. It’s her place to help the child through the anger and come out of the other side. The Christian faith also sees anger with God being one of his children’s periods when perhaps the need for God to help the Christian address their troubles is more than at times when things are going well.
Bereavement and Loss
Bereavement and loss are difficult times for human beings, though other negative experiences could equally trigger that anger at God. People may ask, at a desperate time within their lives, why God let something happen. They see God as being in control of the Universe and if that is the case, why would a caring God let unfairness happen? The truth is that God gave mankind the benefit of choice. It is perhaps sometimes this choice that causes wrong to happen. Of course, God is there. Of course, God is listening, though as a consequence of allowing mankind choice, God is there to help the suffering to come through their experience as stronger human beings.
To Christians, this phrase from the Bible will be familiar: “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” This comes from Psalm 22. After questioning God’s authority, many Christians then go through a period of remorse because they feel bad about being so disrespectful to God. This adds to the weight of their problems. In Psalm 22, the speaker was David, though what follows in further passages within the Bible is David’s exultation of God. He never stays angry for long. Look at verse 22 in the same Psalm and you will see that David didn’t step away from belief in God at any time, but felt frustrated and angry toward him.
What brings a Christian back to feeling good with the world is understanding that God is and that his faith in God was never eroded by the anger. The belief in God is what steadfastly helps the Christian to move on from blame to a better understanding both of himself and of God.
God is always here
The interesting thing is that blame can be thrown very easily at God, but as long as the faith in God is strong, that will be followed by the confidence that God is still there, regardless of the adversity suffered by the individual. At times like this, the distance placed between God and man is only within the mind of the sufferer, though once they begin to come through that adversity, it is very possible to become closer to God because that adversity strengthens that belief.
When something happens which is difficult to accept or when you lose someone very close to you, it’s natural that you need to blame someone. If God is the one who is given the blame, it is only a matter of time before you understand that regardless of that blame you throw His way, God is just like a parent and will still be there, but more apparent to you, once the anger subsides.
