My Nana lived through the Great Depression, though when she told me about her experiences, life sounded neither great nor terribly depressing. Perhaps it was because in West Virginia life did not change that much. Small farms were not dependent on cash crops and so there was food. Jobs were harder to get (much!), but neighbors pulled together.
Or so Nana said.
One thing you learned listening to her wisdom was that people are people . . . even in a crisis. Some people rise to the challenge and become better, other people go on “relief” (government assistance) and never get out of bed again. Nana kept working, but her Christianity told her to feed hungry people. You could knock on her door and she would give you some food.
One time (I hope I have the details right, Mom!) a woman came to the door and said she was starving. She had come to the right house, because Nana had pinto beans and a West Virginian with a pot of pinto beans can feed five thousand. I am not sure why this is true, but you can keep adding water or bacon grease or something to the pot and keep feeding people. Combined with corn bread, a well simmered pot of pinto beans is as good as steak and the next day they are even better.
Cold pinto beans are delicious with a solidity that warm, soupy pinto beans lack, but they are an acquired taste.
All of this is to give you background: pinto beans are good food and I ate them a lot in my childhood, but in the Depression, people in West Virginia ate them daily. They were the staple food. How did the woman reply to Nana’s loving gift?
“I don’t like beans. Do you have eggs?”
At this point, Nana doubted the woman was starving and so this grifter got no eggs and no beans. She had a good line, but a bad follow through. So it is often with us, we ask God for His gracious provision and He sends us what we need, but this is not good enough. He sends delicious beans, but we want eggs.
Evil is real and I understand when people struggle with a good God and the existence of true evil, but getting beans when you would prefer eggs is not an example of the problem of evil. It is an example of our greed. We prefer something else and so we refuse (and Nana says the woman refused with dignity . . . the “just beans”) what God is offering.
God has a pot of beans for us, simmered long over the fire, full of Nana’s special flavorings (mustard? spices?) and delicious. We demand eggs and so we go hungry.
We are not merely idiots, but wretches who blame “fate” for our greediness and God for our guts. I can imagine (philosophers are good at imagining!) some reason this woman was justified in demanding eggs, but no good reason to get mad at God when He gives us beans when we would “prefer” eggs. God is not stingy, He gives us what we need and our heart’s true desire. Surely it is not hard to realize that what we think we want and what would be best for us (and for our neighbor) might be the beans God is giving us. We must never trade the beans God has given us for the fantasy of eggs we do not even need.
Time to eat: let’s go eat some beans.
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