Can we destroy something God put in place?

[Written in a comment to this post on February 13, 2011:]

The whole situation with Richard and Tracy demonstrates the danger of expecting perfection out of your spiritual guru. I keep going back and forth: badly wanting apologies and reconciliation, then remembering that I couldn’t stand the things I saw going on all the time, and realizing I’m better off sticking with my kinder, gentler friends.

I simply can’t condone the things that these people did, or respect anyone who would do those things and excuse them. If I objected to something that was done or said to me or to someone else, I was treated as if I had no right or cause to complain.

I was objecting quite a bit shortly before the incident of the betrayal and verbal abuse, because all of a sudden quite a bit was going on right in front of me to object to….

But it’s so hard to close the door on it forever when it seemed like God was working in so many ways to form the friendship.

It’s a question that applies in many different contexts: If you see the hand of God everywhere in a project, decision or relationship, so much so that you’re convinced the Holy Spirit is driving it, yet it all falls apart–How is this to be explained??

Can people destroy a good thing even if God is driving it? Or if we’re mistaken that God was behind it, how can we tell that something with so many evidences of God’s handiwork, is not of Him after all?

Table of Contents 

1. Introduction

2. We share a house 

3. Tracy’s abuse turns on me 

4. More details about Tracy’s abuse of her husband and children 

5. My frustrations mount 

6. Sexual Harassment from some of Richard’s friends

7. Without warning or explanation, tensions build

 
8. The Incident

9. The fallout; a second chance?

10. Grief 

11. Struggle to regain normalcy

12. Musings on how Christians should treat each other

13. Conclusion 

13b. Thinking of celebrating the first anniversary

14. Updates on Richard’s Criminal Charges 

Sequel to this Story: Fighting the Darkness: Journey from Despair to Healing