When God Doesn't Answer

This was my great summer muse.

Where is God? Why isn’t He doing something about this? Why isn’t He keeping this from happening? ARE YOU THERE GOD? ARE YOU EVEN PAYING ATTENTION? Because it sure doesn’t seem like it…

Most of us have asked some variety of these questions at least once. I know I certainly have. Now I can talk myself back through my theology and remind myself that God is there. He’s always there. However, I had not quite settled on why He just stood by seemingly helpless or disinterested.

Why doesn’t He keep So-and-so from doing that hurtful thing?

Question: Why doesn’t God stop you from doing _______? Why doesn’t He intervene when you try to do _______?

Answer: Because He has given us free will and He loves us so much that He will not force us to do anything. He loves us and wants us to obey Him because we love Him. Not because He made us.

I know this, but I’m not a big mercy shower. I desire justice! Or at least thwarting of plans. It has frustrated me for years that He so seldom seems to interfere. It took me a while, but I suddenly realized one day that God sometimes does something more cruel than interfere or thwart. Sometimes He lets our plans work themselves out. Do you know what happens when our plans work themselves out? We end up in a very sticky, nasty, muddy, knotted tangle. We know very little. Our plans only work in a small, thoroughly controlled by us environment if we’re lucky. By letting our plans work themselves out in the very unpredictable world, God is pretty much just letting us set ourselves up for failure. Our plans end in failure. The end.

Fortunately for us, God is not the sort to look down His nose at us and say, “Ha! You silly people! Serves you right!” and then walks away. Instead, He untangles the mess, pulls the pieces of debris from our hair and clothes, cleans us up, and sets us back where we are to be.

If He does that for you and me, then He is allowing the same to happen to So-and-so who is doing such-and-such. If that gives you vindictive peace of mind, have fun with that thought, but that is missing a lot of points as well as the mark of this whole thing.

I stand before you as one who has hurt and who has been hurt. I write to you as one who is hurting, who is watching people I love and care for being hurt. It breaks my heart! I cannot even describe to you how it breaks my heart. I don’t understand what purpose God has in allowing this to go on. I understand and know very little about most things, but I am very certain on this: God doesn’t always stop people from doing bad things. It pains Him to see His creations hurting each other, but He loves us enough to not stop us, to not usurp our free will. I know in my heart that no matter what bad thing happens, God WILL work it for good. Even if it’s a good we don’t understand or don’t comprehend as yet. We will one day.

I cried til I nearly drowned in my tears, I poured out my heart to God until there was nothing left to pour. I struggled, I wrestled, I ran screaming and sobbing through the swirling mists of my sorrows and questions til I found myself lying in a cold, dreary, empty place… then I awoke and found myself in the warm arms of my Savior. He had heard my cries, he had dried my tears, and told me “Peace child, you do not understand.”