There is one question that people never seem to get answered enough in their journey.  You may think it relates to a topic like the second coming but that's not it.  You may even imagine that some other doctrine might be always on the minds of people but that's not it either.  I saw a little boy asking his father this question after his Alabama football team lost their game on Saturday.  He was sobbing over the shocking defeat of his beloved Crimson Tide.  Reading his lips was fairly easy as he asked his dad why.  Why or how could his team get beat in such an amazing ending?  That is the question I get most times and usually not about a football game.  It comes mostly in a time of crisis to be sure but seldom related to sports.

People really struggle with this issue of why bad things happen in their life.  Our tendency is to start with a false idea of what this adventure is all about.  For one thing, nowhere does it say that bad things should not be a part of this thing we called life.  We are often the ones who make the determination on the value of an event.  Our problem is the emotions so cloud our judgment at such an occasion that we cannot see clearly.  Now this is perfectly natural or even human.  But we also usually forget that truth in the crisis.  We also seem to have the idea that being "good" is enough to keep the bad stuff away.  It sounds as if God owes us good days simply because we believe we are trying to be good.  Now those two statements sound a bit harsh but they are worth our consideration.  We will let the bumps in the road become more than we are able to overcome if we do not start with the right perspective.  We will make our days more about us than God when we do that.

Another error of ours is we believe God cannot tolerate us asking Him why such awful times occur.  My reading of scripture says more than a few of the biblical characters brought their complaints to God.  We read of Job who carries on several dialogues with friends, family and with God during his breakdown.  He becomes a deeper man of faith because of his honesty but also his humility.  Others do not fare so well when it comes to asking God this cosmic question.  Many of the Psalms carry an element of searching for divine reasons for human calamity.  The anguish of David along with other writers becomes clear when you bring an open heart to reading those Psalms.  These people know our pain even though many years removed from their writing.

I encourage people to ask God the why question.  Part of my reason is He is our focus for wisdom and courage as we muddle through.  I also mention that answers may take time to discover if we ever get them all to our satisfaction.  But we absolutely must keep seeking God to find His truth.  We cannot and will not ever find them in our own counsel.  God can handle our questions, our pain, and our frustration.  He is that big.

What is clear to me is God always has a reason for us in those times.  We may not be ready to know that reason yet but it is there.  It is as surely there as the sun still shines behind any level of clouds.  This doesn't mean I always like what happens in the life of others.  But when you opt for the answer that this is beyond God then you will miss what His better purpose is in life.  Nobody ever said life is fair.  We really would not like God to always be fair since we are sinners.  What we need is grace.  We need a God who is powerful enough to handle our crisis yet caring enough to comfort our brokenness.  That is why we have the cross to answer not just any sense of life being unfair but also our broken hearts.  We can always look to God who gets how painful this world really is.  He also says this world is not all there is. 

That's enough for one night.  We will come back to this as soon as we can. 

Bro. Trey