Berean Journeymen

The question pertaining to why bad things happen to good people, be it unemployment or divorce or death or abuse or other, has left many feeling unsatisfied with the answers they have found, or the lack thereof. I even have a friend whose pursuit of becoming a youth pastor and even being an active follower of Christ ended because of this unanswered question. As we consider that question or encounter the storm ourselves, it seems our human nature is to seek a suitable explanation and derive understanding, but maybe holding to that tendency is where we go astray. Maybe there is something beyond searching for a reason that leads to obtaining something more than satisfaction.

When we hear about a good person being hit by a drunk driver or being shot in a fight or being abused by others, we readily chalk it up to another sinful human’s free-will choice to get behind the wheel or pull a trigger or raise a fist. But how does one find an acceptable understanding of why a child is dying of cancer? Or how does one adequately explain good people being killed by natural disasters? Can we truly find a plausible, viable, adequate, and acceptable reason for such things?

If the book of Job is any indication, there will likely be storms in our lives that we will never understand and there will likely be perceived unfair pain in this world that will go unexplained. In the midst of that, will we find a way to accept that there are things and times and ways and purposes that are too wondrous for us to understand? Will we find a way to accept that God is orchestrating a story much bigger than we can see? After all, who are we to contend with and correct the Almighty who spins the world on its axis and brings forth the flowers in the springtime and pulses the beating of our hearts? Who are we to say this person or that person is ‘good’, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? Is not God and God alone good? Who are we compared to God, what knowledge of ours is better than his? To search for an adequate explanation that will satisfy our nature in times when our understanding is utterly insufficient will inevitably prove futile.

What are we to do then in such times? Believe that God is not good? By no means, his character proves otherwise. Or would we do well to lean not on our own understanding and simply trust him? Trust the One who was and is and is to come by faith through the spirit. Trust the One who calms the storm with his hand and his word. Trust the One who assures us that in this world we will have troubles, and then reassures us to take heart because He has overcome the world. Trust the One who experienced pain and suffering as we never will, allowing the weight of our corrupt sin which he abhors and despises fall upon his glorious perfection. Trust the One who peers deep inside our pain and suffering and lovingly calls, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Does God not have our best intentions in mind? Is He not trustworthy?

There are things in our lives that will never be fully understood by our nature, but God did not intend for us to have perfect knowledge; God intended for us to have simple faith…the faith of a child. Does He not keep such things hidden from the wise and learned yet reveal them to little children? It is through simple faith and trust that we find peace and hope, and is there anything more precious than peace and hope when we face the unknown? Why is something so simple so difficult for me, for us to embrace even when we know it to be true? When will I, will we consistently walk by faith and not by sight? O Lord, please help me, give me faith like a child.