Questions with No Answers?

Psalm 13

New American Standard Bible Psalm 13

1 How long, LORD? Will You forget me forever?

How long will You hide Your face from me?

2 How long am I to feel anxious in my soul,

With grief in my heart all the day?

How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;

Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,

4 And my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”

And my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.

5 But I have trusted in Your faithfulness;

My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.

6 I will sing to the LORD,

Because He has looked after me.

In recent years, we have been encouraged to include laments in our spiritual practice, especially corporately. We tend to be on our best behavior in church, but the Bible teaches us that questioning God and crying out to Him, even in ways that may seem disrespectful, are OK. “God can handle it”, we are told, and it is good for us, as we process our pain and put our faith in God even when we don’t understand what is going on. As the Psalmist teaches us, even during times of suffering, we trust God because He has been faithful in the past.

When bad things happen, people ask how a good and powerful God can let such tragedies occur. We acknowledge that we live in a broken world where sin is real, but that thought may not help. We ask why good people are killed, the innocent are victimized, why natural disasters occur, or even why we are going through a pandemic. Why does God allow such things to happen? Couldn’t an all-powerful God stop them if He wanted to? For such questions, we most likely will not get answers in this lifetime. We expect God to use His power, but He chooses not to. Why? We watch superhero movies and the see the amazing things they do, as well as more human heroes. Isn’t God even more powerful?

Karl Barth reminds us that sometimes God uses weakness to fulfil His purposes instead of just “snapping His fingers” or twinkling His nose to instantly fix things. To summarize a summary, God came into our world in human form, in order to experience what we went through. As Jesus, even though He had the power to change anything and everything, He chose to perform His greatest act by emptying Himself, suffering as we do and even more, dying a brutal death on the cross; but then rising from the tomb, securing our salvation and victory over sin and death. God became one of us, suffered like us, and in the Spirit remains with us. He still suffers with us when we do. Even when we ask why He is not fixing things during tough times, He is with us, comforting us, guiding us into eternity. Sometimes this thought helps, sometimes it doesn’t. But like the Psalmist, we keep carrying on, trusting in God’s faithfulness. We may not understand now, but someday we will see all things made new.

A few weeks ago, we took my Uncle Miles to the airport, sending him home after a final visit. For some of us, we knew it would be the last time we saw him alive in this life. Once home, he started hospice care, and soon passed quietly in his sleep. We were blessed to get a last chance to spend time with him, and know that it was a blessing for him to make amends with those he needed to do so, and say good-bye to the many folks he loved. He was kind, loving, steady, uncomplaining, always grateful. Always ready with a smile and a hug, looking you in the eye, giving you his full attention. Perhaps the knowledge that we will see him again one day in Heaven doesn’t comfort us much now. Perhaps we ask why he had to go through so much suffering, and yet showed such quiet strength.

At his brother Tom’s funeral, Miles was one of the few able to share anything. I hadn’t seen Miles in years, and didn’t know what to expect. I have since gotten to know him again. At Tom’s funeral, he was one of the few who could say what needed to be said, even though very difficult for him, showing grace and courage, as he did during his last visit with us. Through his suffering he taught us how to live through pain without complaining, grateful to be with family and friends, knowing he didn’t have much time left.

Instead of blaming God for the bad things that happen, focus on praising Him for His faithfulness and the good things He does. Thank Him especially for the good people He sends us to love and to love us. Miles was one of them.