The Existence of God

The life of one of the greatest writers in American History is also one of the saddest. No man should have to outlive his wife and two of his three children. And yet, Mark Twain did. Not only did he lose much of his family, the last years of his life was spent away from the family that he loved. Because of debt that he accrued, Twain had to spend many years giving a tour of lectures across the world. He lost his daughter during this time. He also spent much time away from his wife during these final years. During her last days, he was told he was bad for her health, and should only visit her a few minutes a day. Thus, the final days and hours he could have spent with his wife were stolen from him.

Quite often in our lives, when things do not go our way, it is our own fault. Oh, we may try to place the blame upon others, but if we truly are honest with ourselves we will see that the pain we have endured was caused by our selfishness and carelessness. Unfortunately, we also tend to place the responsibility for our actions upon others.

An easy person to blame for our own failures is God. The hardships that Twain faced near the end of his life caused him first to blame God, then question His existence entirely. True, he blamed himself in some aspects, but ultimately he blamed God.

Blaming God for the bad things that happen in life comes from an incorrect understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live. We think that God should be good to us all the time, that nothing bad should ever befall us. When evil happens in this world, it is not the fault of God; He wants always to do good things for His children. However, man has brought sin into this world. With sin comes its consequences. The early deaths of loved ones in our lives are consequences of a cursed and fallen world, a result of man's sin.

Twain's selfishness caused a lot of hurt in his life. It strained the relationship between himself and his family. Time that should have been spent in ease with his family was instead spent away from them, earning enough money to pay off debts. We make our own bed, and we must lie in it. We can not blame God for our greed.

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