We simultaneously live in a world that doesn’t make sense. Innocent people get killed. Earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, famine, drought, and hurricanes happen. People get sick. People get depressed, anxious, and the human mind can succumb to many other kinds of dysfunction. Relationships get strained and some painfully end.
That’s the world. Simultaneously beautiful and terrible. Job knew this better than anybody. When the devastating losses started piling up on top of each other, Job asked the question we all ask: “Why?” His friends tried to convince Job that his trials and his losses were his own fault. They were a bunch of theological imposters who were too busy explaining things to stop and actually listen for a few moments.
Job eventually realized he was asking the wrong question: “Why?” didn’t seem as important as “Where is God?” And Job looked. He looked in front as far as the eye could see in all directions and didn’t see God anywhere. If Job only knew where God was then Job would finally get some answers and maybe a little comfort. But Job was having as much luck finding God as a kid would have finding a needle in a haystack.
Job’s friends started talking again. But finally God had enough. It was time for some sense in the world that sometimes makes little sense. God rarely spoke so forcefully as he did that day with Job: Were you there when I created the world? Was it you who scooped out the oceans and stopped the powerful waters dead in their tracks? God was just getting warmed up, but Job already got the point.
“Where is God?” was replaced by “Who is going to help me through this?” All other questions evaporated like fog on a warm morning and all explanations of why shriveled like a dry plant under the hot sun. Job knew the right question and he even knew the only response.
Beautiful things happen in the world. Terrible things happen too. Like school administrators going to work one day and getting shot. Like a teenage boy making a bad choice that ends the life of another and his own life as well.
If you are looking to make sense of the world, you are going to be looking for a long time and you aren’t going to have much luck. But God is still with us. He hasn’t abandoned us and He never will. He simply and repeatedly points us to the cross, the most terrible of all terribles, a time when God acted most lovingly, to show us that hopelessness can turn into hopefulness, brokenness can transform to blessedness, and death leads to resurrection.
Who? God.
The best is yet to come…
Craig
4 comments:
Very Well Said!
Emmanuel, ever and always near. God With Us...
Thank you, Craig. Your words minister. Your community has been in my prayers. I can't imagine the anguish.
Very true. Making sense in our world is difficult, but somewhere, for some reason God has a purpose, a plan, healing, and peace.
Craig- your words are perfect and in line with Gods words. Just finished Randy Alcorns new book "IF God is Good" in a bible study and much of what you say is addressed in this book. God IS with us - always and HE protects us so many times when we don't even know or recognize it. Thank you for your prayers Craig!
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