One day on the listserve for my support group it got posted that it was all part of God's plan that we got HSP, so it was okay because God wills it. Bull! Somewhere along the way the genes got goofed up and that is why we have HSP. A mutation developed and is unfortunately passed on to fifty percent of the offspring of anyone affected.

When I hear someone say, "It must be God's plan; we just do not understand," it gets my blood boiling. How could God be involved in possibly giving my beautiful son HSP? What possible benefit could there be to him having HSP? Is God into cruelty? I do not think so. God has much more important business to attend to.

On the evening news I heard a pastor discussing the fact that two of his teenage congregation members were killed in car accidents in the last month. He used the cop-out explanation of the accidents being "God's plan." Why does there have to be an answer, why not, it is just a part of life? Sometimes bad things just happen, even to good people. Do you really believe that God needed more angels or maybe these teenagers families needed to toughen up...God was just teaching them to be stronger?

Accidents happen. If a person gets hit by a car while crossing the street, it is just horrible timing, not part of some cruel plan. Thinking that God controls everything would mean God is a homicidal maniac who controls a gigantic Hot Wheels track in the sky. I do not think so. He has better things to do than worry about who gets sick and who does not. Who stubs his toe and who does not? Who has a car wreck and who does not? Who has a miscarriage and who goes on to give birth? Who gets raped and who does not?

I have always believed in a Higher Power,that Higher Power being God. Believing in God is comforting. I cannot believe that God controls everything. He is not cruel. He does not want me or my son to have Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia.

Jackie Wellman, author of Spiritual Clarity, http://www.hoppy.bravehost.com, http://spiritualclarity.blogspot.com