Just a Thought
My life tends to follow a certain pattern. I will have one or two major life questions that are at the forefront of my mind. I will spend anywhere from three months to a year diving into whatever question is before me and then I will have a down period where I won’t really think of anything of more depth than the Broncos or comparing and contrasting all of the Die Hard movies.
The issue that I have been wrestling with lately is where is God in the midst of suffering? I have been thinking about this ever since I read a novel called The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. All throughout my life I have heard people talk about God’s will in regards to pain and brokenness. I would hear one person say to someone who has lost a loved one, “It’s OK they are in a better place now. Sometimes it is hard to know the why but it was his will.” It’s true that the person who has died might be in a better place and it is hard to know the will of God but to say that God caused so-in-so to die because it was part of his will is not entirely accurate. I have an extremely hard time thinking that the God of love, grace, mercy, redemption, and life causes death and heartache. I think we cause all of the crap that is in the world and God works with it. I think to say that God causes death is to rob him of his redemptive power. I serve the God who defeated death, not brought it about. I believe God can take the s**t in our lives and redeem it. He takes what was never intended and brings it into himself, where it finds love. When someone talks about the silver lining I hear God’s hand at work. When someone verbalizes some joy that has come out of great suffering I hear a God that refuses to abandon us.
No, I serve a God of redemption and a God that will always bring us close even through the worst circumstances not a puppeteer that forces death and brokenness onto his creation for his own amusement or to accomplish a greater good. The greatest good was defeating death and mending brokenness. My uncle committed suicide yesterday. I am not sure where the redemption is going to come from but it will come. I am waiting with my God for the silver lining.
