This post may not sit well with some people. This is one of those difficult topics that we may know the answer to in our heads (and then again… maybe not) but not in our hearts. This occurred to me during devotions with my wife over Christmas.
Therefore, consider this a Christmas and New Year post. I am technically behind on both. One of my favorite Christmas (incarnation) verses is Galatians 4:4-5:
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Why? Of course, we realize that “… God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.“
But why then? Why not next year? Why not sooner? Sure, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent for His Son…” How did God determine the fullness of time? Why was this the right time? Could God not have done it sooner? By now, you are probably wondering what I’m up to. This brings us to Romans…
Do we have the right to ask, “Why?” In a different context, in Romans chapter nine, the Holy Spirit, through the pen of the Apostle Paul, addresses such a question.:
20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay… (Romans 9:20-21)?
How often, when we are feeling spiritual about the happy, mysterious ways of God, do we say things like “God’s ways are above our ways… His thoughts are above our thoughts… (Isaiah 55:8-9)?” We routinely say that God is all-knowing, all-wise, and His will is perfect. We say His perspective is wider, eternal and ours is so limited.. so narrow. But do we really believe it?
Our confidence in God’s wisdom and goodness can shift when adversity comes our way. At a previous church, someone told me a relative was “mad at God” because the young man’s 90-something-year-old grandmother passed away—and so he asked, “Why did God take her when He did?” You might say the obvious answer is something like, “Wow… she was in her 90s after all.” Implicit in your answer is that God was not in the wrong for what He did in taking the grandmother. Such a “case study” is an easy one. What if God takes away your job, your health… a child, or a spouse? My health?
Who are we to question God’s intelligence, morality, sense of timing, purpose, and character (Romans 9:20-21)? That’s what is bound up, packaged (baked into the cake), when we ask God, “Why?” Implicitly, when one is mad at the One True God, we are setting ourselves up as His judge. We are doing like Adam and Eve: believing a lie about God (Satan suggested God was holding them back (Genesis 3:4-5).
Getting back to the young man who was mad at God for taking his 90-something grandmother… Would he (would we) like to pick and choose the date of a loved one’s death? In other words, “Would we like to play God?” What if God shortens your life (my life) through a chronic illness? Death, illness, and other things in this world remind us, like the grandmother’s death, that life is short. We only have so much time, and we should employ it well. There is a reason and a season for everything that happens on this fallen, broken word that sin has disfigured (Ecclesiastes 3:1-22). Humanity broke the world (Romans 5:12), and God is making all things new through the person and work of Jesus Christ in His unfolding drama of redemption. There is no random change. Everything happens for a reason. You are no accident. You have a purpose. God raised you up and planted you here. Maybe we are asking the wrong question (Why?).
This New Year, maybe ask, “What now, what next, Master?” As my battery and your battery runs down, how will we make the most of the time we have left? For starters, we need to be trusting God even when life hurts. Everything that happens to you happens for a good reason (Genesis 50:20). Each experience, “good or bad,” happens for a reason. God is equipping you where you are to do greater and greater things (James 1:2-5). Maybe make it your New Year’s resolution to trust God and put to use the lessons learned from suffering in the service of God and others. And just maybe God will use you in the lives of others to bring them to Christ or to comfort them with wisdom learned the hard way (James 1:5-8). Don’t fall into the devil’s trap of distrusting God. Flee into His waiting arms as you suffer hardship or experience setbacks, and this year will be different than any other.