One of my favorite songs (one of many, as I really like music) is the tune "Why?" by Micharl Card. It's a 30+ year old song, but it had great paradoxical questions, like: "Why did it have to be a kiss (to betray Jesus)? That's not what a kiss is for." McManus talks at length about how we can't seem to stop asking the question "why." Even with our advancement in technology, which answers a lot of the "what," "when," "how much" and other quantifying questions, we're still left asking and wondering why.
"Why are we here?
Why is there evil in the world?
Why is there so much suffering?
Why would God allow this to happen?
Why would we allow it to happen?
Why don't we change?
Why don't we do something about it?
Why does it matter?
Why is the question that haunts us.
It's interesting, because why is a question that must be asked by and to an authority. Someone that doesn't know the answer can't really be trusted with answering it, can they? How would they know the why? If you do something, someone can ask you "why" and you can tell them. When it comes to suffering or a tragedy, or a mystery (like the creation of giraffes or solar systems), only someone beyond ourselves, someone who actually did the creating, could begin to answer that.
My limited understanding of those questions is a confident, "I don't know." I have come to trust God, though. I have had my own personal set of tests that I ran this invisible-to-my-eyes god through, and He passed. He has amazed me and I believe in Him. Even though I don't know why certain things happen and even though I think it's somewhat of an irrelevant question for me to ask (why do I need to know?), I certainly don't think it's a question we get penalized for asking. It seems (through my own experience and reading the experience of others in Scripture -- with people like Job, Solomon, David, and Peter, for instance) that God enjoys it when we come to him with all we've got, laying bare our souls and unloading our questions and anger upon Him. He can handle it all. He's not shaken by the things that we are shaken by.
That is comforting. I believe that we exist in a fallen world. I wouldn't call myself a deist, as I believe in a balance between an active God that will answer the prayers of a believing charismatic follower and I also believe that God sits outside of the world He created and lets many things take their natural course. Bacteria randomly attack, for example. Disease spreads. Some sick people randomly pick victims to destroy. Winds gather speed and create tornadic winds, killing or injuring some. There's some things that I can't even begin to explain the why's or even the how's of. I'm not the knowing one in these cases. Sometimes not knowing leaves us "anchorless" and lost, as if we were at sea with nothing to control the direction we will go. Sometimes we can make it through these times, even if it pushes us to the brink of maintaining our composure.
Sometimes we can't offer an answer to a "why" question from someone suffering or grieving. But sometimes what can help a person like that is just to be around a person who has an anchor in their soul to the Author of their lives. Being around someone who trusts in God can be a calming effect -- even if they don't preach or offer answers. All of us can probably imagine or remember a time when an answer is offered that doesn't achieve the weight or purpose with which it was intended. Instead it falls to the ground as a cliche, words that don't stand up or help, even though we'd like to offer a cure to make things better or speed up healing.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at December 28, 2007 10:04 AM