c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Even if you’re not the sort of person who believes God is directing the path of all these storms, it’s been hard not to throw a lamentation or two in the Almighty’s direction lately.

Maybe yours came with Arlene. Perhaps you waited for Dennis or held off until Katrina’s wrath was unleashed at the end of last month.

Or maybe somehow you were able to keep your cool, and your faith, until the forecasters started mentioning that Rita _ neither lovely nor a meter maid _ was headed into the Gulf of Mexico.

And even if you weren’t angry with God, you may have had a hard time not casting your eyes skyward, rolling them a bit and just asking one simple question: Are you kidding me?

Maybe that’s just me.

It’s not that I expect an answer.

I don’t even know that I’m questioning God, really.

But come on.

Another one?

Just as I inaudibly ask the question, treating the Almighty like some sort of mischief-maker in the sky _ which is hardly what I believe _ words attributed to God in the Book of Job pulse through my mind: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the Earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements _ surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?”

It’s enough to make me pipe down.

But still, I find the question tickling my mind, an act I don’t doubt some would condemn as faithless and insolent.

The Bible, however, is full of people asking questions, oftentimes asking God why one bad thing or another happened.

In the midst of and after all the interrogation, though, I have to say I’ve never run across an answer so satisfying that I find the issue of theodicy _ the question of God’s goodness in the face of evil and suffering _ settled.

So time and again, I ask.

I’ve also learned that those who seek God do tend to be able to find God, though not necessarily when and where they’re looking.

In our on-demand culture, the wait can prove frustrating, not to mention time-consuming.

Truth be told, I could spend an awful lot of time studying weather patterns, researching the environmental impact of particular practices, all in hopes of discovering the whys and wherefores of the 2005 hurricane season.

There’s something to be accomplished by doing that, and I’m glad there are people who do such work.

But for me, after I’ve offered prayers of sighs, cries and impertinent questions, the best thing to do is to take what action I can to respond to those in need, as well as to allow others to care for me.

I can’t change the storms, meteorological and otherwise, that are beyond human control.

None of us can.

But most days, though it may not seem like it lately, aren’t spent in the midst of storms.

Most of our living is spent in between.

In her children’s story “God in Between,” Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso writes of the “Ones Who Could See Out Windows” who thought that God must be somewhere they had not yet been.

“`We journeyed hundreds of miles looking for God, and then, we found each other,’ said the woman.

“`And we discovered God was with us,’ added the man. …

“`God is in the in between,’ said the Ones Who Could See Out Windows.

“In the between. In between us.”

MO/PH RNS END

(Kristen Campbell is a religion reporter for the Mobile Register in Mobile, Ala.)