Hello Abundant Life Family,
It is human, I think, to ask the old familiar question of “Why?” Most of the time, especially in periods of despair and suffering, we are addressing that question to God, no matter whom we might be speaking to. More often than not, though, it seems that we are not looking for an answer, we are looking for an argument.
Someone told me about an article written years ago by T.W. Willingham, and in his writing he reminds us that Jesus Himself asked that question of His father in the darkest moment of His earthly existence: “My God, my God, WHY have You forsaken Me?” And the author explains, “The double address to God bespeaks the dark anguish of Christ’s troubled soul. In the Why? are distilled queries as to the justice, the love, and goodness of God Himself. It is the point at which sight has gone into total eclipse, where faith must walk alone.”
The problem for us is that we expect inSIGHT in our pain and suffering. We want explanations, we want answers, we want maps, and we want to know what God knows. The good news is that this shows we believe God has the answers; it would be even better if we believed He is the answer. I think if the Lord took us aside and explained the answers to all of our whys we would still be tempted to argue that we do not deserve such trials and we are being unfairly treated. We forget that Jesus is called “a man of sorrows,” and His extreme suffering at the most important event in human history was for OUR transgressions, for OUR healing, for OUR peace, and for OUR blood-bought victories.
Maybe as John Piper, an author and pastor, thinks, God cannot make plain to us all that He does, or allows, in our lives. For one thing, there may be millions and millions, and millions of the good and bad effects of even one difficult event that we go through! And how do we know that our minds or brains can even hold the explanations for all of the effects? Furthermore, how does the clay say to the potter that he owes it an explanation? Isn’t it enough that He has given us His Son, His promises, His Word, an and His Love? Just knowing that, we can trust Him with our why questions, and if we do, we learn to value the questions themselves. So we keep learning….
“We live by faith and not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7