Sample Chapter: Why?
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Pastor Perry Keyt, one of the most dynamic and insightful pastors I’ve ever known, went to be with the Lord on the day before Thanksgiving 2008. He had been our associate pastor for about ten years before accepting a wonderful opportunity to become the senior pastor at another church. He couldn’t possibly have passed it up, and he went with our blessing. But it had been less than a year since he left, and now he was dead at age forty-six from lung cancer, and here was a man who had never smoked a cigarette in his life. He spent his last days in a hospital battling pneumonia, gasping for air as fluid filled his lungs and a team of nurses fought desperately to bring him through some dramatic medical emergencies. God knew he would die, yet He gave him that church anyway. Why? In 1993 my maternal grandfather quietly rose from the dinner table and shot himself. We still ask why. Just yesterday a worker at Wal-Mart was trampled to death by a crazed mob intent on saving a few bucks on toys at a Black Friday sale. Why? I couldn’t begin to list friends who’ve lost children—from ectopic pregnancies to childbirth complications to sudden infant death syndrome. Why? And while I’m on that subject, why did Kim and I have to be one of those couples? Why? Perhaps more than any other questions we’ve covered, this one-word question tends to come with such enormous pain. Though it may be laced with the raw stirrings of anger, we tend to ask God the why question when it hurts the most. Most of us have lost a loved one at some point or other. In our darkest, most private moments of grief, when we break down in abject pain, there’s really nothing else we can do but ask this question. Because the only thing on earth that remains clear to us during those moments is that God is the only One who could have made things turn out differently. Two points need to come to light here. The first is that it’s perfectly okay to ask God this question. Sometimes we have the perception that if we question God, we must not have enough faith, but God can deal with our toughest questions. In fact, asking God these kinds of questions is part of building a relationship with Him. Imagine a marriage relationship in which neither spouse is allowed to ask any questions. It simply isn’t possible. Spouses who dance around critical issues end up with failed marriages, and a failed relationship with His creation is not what God had in mind. It’s true that we must always approach God with the respect that is His due, but go right ahead and ask Him the tough questions. If anything, I hope the questions in this book will serve as a starting point for you to ask all the things you’ve ever wanted to know about God and life but were afraid to ask. God is God, and no question will faze Him. On the contrary, each sincere question gives Him the opportunity He’s been waiting for to pull us just a little closer. The second point highlights the importance of making sure the why question gives birth to another question: “God, my life is still in Your hands, and You knew this would happen even before You gave me my goals and dreams. So God, what do You need me to do now?” each sincere question gives Him the opportunity He’s been waiting for to pull us just a little closer.” The reason so many have been crushed by terrible events, never to recover, is because they never made it past the why part. Too broken or too angry to continue, the roots of bitterness and depression found fertile soil, and dreams died. Asking God what the next step is implicitly acknowledges that God knows what He’s doing. He’s not the least bit surprised at the latest turn of events. At no point is God scrambling to fix an unexpected rip in the space-time continuum. Romans 8:28 assures us, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” This means that when bad things happen, we move on, no less confident than before that God’s plan continues unabated. Even if God chooses not to explain the why part to our satisfaction, the reality is that He continues to work things out for our eternal betterment. I recall the old story of a shoemaker who witnessed an acclaimed surgeon as he operated on a certain woman. Watching aghast as the surgeon took his scalpel and cut through perfectly healthy flesh, the shoemaker could barely contain himself. When I repair an old shoe, he thought, I only cut through the bad leather, not the good! It’s only natural to wonder why bad things happen to good people, but we must remember that the Great Physician needs no advice; He knows what He’s doing. Will we trust Him even if He lets bad things happen? Will we love Him even if He decides not to explain Himself? Will we follow Him even if He doesn’t write the destination on the board? |
