By: Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
We are naturally curious. We want to know why things happen. That’s one of the reasons gossip and social media are so popular. Research reveals there are between 8.5 and 8.9 billion Google searches every day. The search for answers.
People are curious, and they want to know all sorts of things. Some of them are peripheral and silly. Like, why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?
Of course, our need to know isn’t limited to mundane stuff. There are big issues we need explanations for. We want to know why mass shootings occur. Why our friend died of cancer at such a young age.
Why a young couple can’t get pregnant. Why innocent children are kidnapped and trafficked. Why a child is killed in a car wreck. Why I lost my job. Why my friend betrayed me. Why an innocent high school girl gets raped.
We beg for explanations. We can go for years, even decades, not knowing why. For some, it saps the life out of them, and they live the rest of their lives as a shell of the person they were before the tragedy.
It’s a reason people often blame God — “Why, God, why?” We speculate and come to faulty conclusions born out of our pain and loss: If God were really a God of love, he would have prevented this.
God is punishing me for something I did. When God is silent, we draw these and other wrong conclusions about him. It’s then a short step to losing faith in God altogether.
Here are three realities to help you when you need to know why, but no explanation is given.
Number one: God is more interested in shaping Christ’s character in you than in making your life easy and pain-free. Most of the time, character can only be formed in the crucible of nasty circumstances. When disaster strikes, ask God what he’s up to and cooperate with him.
Number two: Sometimes you won’t understand why you had to endure hardships until you’re further down the road. After all the smoke has cleared, and you see what God was up to, you’ll be able to look back at all you went through and finally understand why God let it happen.
You’ll tell yourself you’d go through the ordeal again if that’s what it took for God to accomplish the amazing results you now see in your life or the life of someone dear to you.
Take Joseph as an example. For 13 years, Joseph faced one bad thing after another. Sold by his brothers into slavery. Bought by Potiphar, whose wife falsely accused him of attempting to rape her. Thrown into a prison dungeon for years. For 13 years, God didn’t even give him a hint as to why these things were happening to him.
At age 30, God sovereignly led Pharaoh to release Joseph from prison and elevated him to second-in-command over all Egypt. From that position, he had the power to provide food and housing for his family during a seven-year famine when they were on the brink of starvation.
Only then did the blinders on his eyes fall away, and he understood why all the unpleasant things he’d gone through had to happen. Joseph explained it to his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50.20).
Like Joseph, someday you will understand why you went through some heart-wrenching times, and it will make perfect sense in retrospect. You may have to endure years with gnawing questions and crises of faith, but someday you’ll see God intended it for good.
Number three: Sometimes you won’t know why things happened to you and those you love until after you die. But from heaven’s viewpoint, you’ll see the big picture of your life and how it intersected with specific events and the lives of others to create a beautiful tapestry.
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we will see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully” (1 Corinthians 13.12). There are so many ways of God we don’t understand. Our minds are filled with whys, and our faith is tested. But after we get Home, we’ll see why.
From the perspective of heaven, we’ll know without a doubt…God loves us. God is for us, not against us. God is good. God is faithful. God always gives what’s best. God causes all things to come together for good.
When we understand why the tough things in our lives happened, we’ll wonder why we blamed and questioned God instead of trusting him in times we couldn’t see any value in our turmoil.
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.