When God Doesn’t Make Sense

Scriptures: Psalms 13:1-6, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Psalms 103:1-22

Comfort Food For Thought

Heads up. This Bible Plan may not be exactly what you’re looking for. If you want to make perfect sense of the tough situations you’ve faced or are currently facing, this is not that. If you’re looking for three easy steps to make your situation go away, this is not that either. Instead, we’ll read through stories in the Bible of people who faced tragedy, pain, and disappointment. We will look to see how people somehow found comfort in the midst of pain, and we will look to find God’s place in these stories. We believe these stories are the word of God, equipped with all the power they need to work in us.

Since we’re talking about when God doesn’t make sense, let’s start with a word most of us think we understand: comfort. The history of the word “comfort” reveals the evolving way we see God’s footprint in our pain. The word is made from two Latin word parts, com-, which basically means “together with,” and fortis, which means “strong or strength.” Later, the Latin word confortare came to mean, “to strengthen much.” Eventually, an Old French word, conforter, would add words like “solace” and “help” to the definition. In the 14th century, another French word, conforten, is defined as, “to cheer up, console.” Finally, by the 17th century, the English version of the word implies the sense of physical ease that we understand today.

We read comfort and we think of pillows, mashed potatoes, or maybe an old pair of worn-in pants. In about a millennia, this word went from meaning, “together-strength,” to meaning “pain-barrier.” We went from understanding God’s comfort as His company, to understanding it as His intervention. When something terrible happens and we don’t see God intervene, we sometimes wonder whether He’s really there at all. But, we’re not alone. Before “comfort” word-morphed, King David experienced a time when God seemed inattentive. Read his letters to God and try to keep pace with his seemingly varying take on God’s place in his struggle.

Pause:Think about the last time you questioned God’s existence. How were you looking to experience His company?

Scriptures: Mark 1:1-10, Mark 6:14-29, Matthew 11:2-11

Are You My Savior Or Not?

Today, a family of five in the middle of America is without power due to an ice storm. They have to spend savings to eat out and sleep at friends’ houses because they have no way to cook and their house is freezing cold. Also today, a family in the middle of Africa has no power, or savings, or easy way to get food, or ice storm. Another family in America is always living at friends’ houses, or in motels—at least when they’re not on the street. Today, a family in Europe will tragically lose a child to an unexpected disease. In the next 24 hours, in impoverished regions of the world, thousands of children are expected to die due to a lack of food and clean water.

Maybe today, but almost definitely this year, natural disasters will strike and suddenly kill thousands. If God’s existence were determined by His prevention of our world’s pain, then He’d be gone with the next wind strong enough to blow over some power lines in your neighborhood.

We’re not the first ones to let difficulty cause us to doubt whether or not God is who He says He is. John The Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, is famous for preaching about the coming of Jesus and proclaiming that he wasn’t even worthy of lacing up Jesus’ dirty sandals. Later, John ended up wrongly imprisoned after spending his whole life for God. In fact, he was put in prison for preaching God’s truth. John was clearly having second thoughts when from prison he wrote to Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” John was wanting to be sure that Jesus was truly the Savior that he’d made him out to be. But maybe John was also wondering if Jesus would be the one to come to his prison cell and break him out?

Then, Jesus, who basically called John the Baptist the greatest human to ever live, responded by pointing to some of the miracles He had done, and finished with, “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” It’s as if Jesus said, “Look, John, I’m the Savior, but don’t blow your blessing by getting ticked off at me for not saving you from prison.”

In short, Jesus thought John was a stellar human being and a servant of God. Jesus essentially said, “Yes, I am the Savior, and I do saving works.” Then, He didn’t save John from prison, or from getting his head severed for entertainment. What can we take away? Whether or not God diverts your struggle does not determine whether or not He is God. And, proof of how God feels about you might not be happening to you today, but it happened to Jesus 2,000 years ago, on the cross.

Pray: Thank Jesus for what He did on the cross, and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you how He feels about you.

Scriptures: James 1:1-18, Matthew 1:23

Dangerous Theology

C.S. Lewis, the well-known author and theologian wrote, “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” Ouch, that already hurts.

Think back to what we learned about the word “comfort” as “together-strength.” If God’s comfort is His strong company, then a difficult situation can be something we face with the powerful and loving comfort of God’s presence. In fact, it’s hard to see it this way, but the situation itself could at times be God’s strength for us. Read that last sentence again until it hits you.

It’s dangerous theology to describe every difficulty as something God intended to make us grow, but it’s equally risky to say that God never puts us through a test to strengthen us. The knowledge that His strength is with us, and that we can come out stronger, holds in it the power to separate us from our need to know, “God, how could you let this happen?” In other words, when God doesn’t make sense, maybe it’s okay. Maybe it’s enough to know He’s Immanuel, God With Us, and He has the power to turn what’s hard for us into what’s good for us.

Celebrate: Think about all the struggles you’ve faced. Look back and remember how they’ve built your character, perseverance, and faith. Find a way to thank God for it all.

Scriptures: 1 Samuel 1:27, 1 Samuel 2:22, 1 Samuel 3:1-21

Ready To Listen

It’s happened to most of us. We’re on the side of the road with a blown tire, an overheated engine, or a bad starter. The tread was wearing, the thermostat has been hotter than normal, or it’s been starting rough. The issue was obvious, but we learned to live with it. Hold down the gas pedal to start, just add water, rotate the tires—again. What was inconveniently noticeable becomes conveniently normal, until that dreaded day when we find ourselves at the mercy of the local tow company. Our car raised its voice to get our attention.

There’s a Bible story like ours. Eli was a good man who gave his entire life to serve God. He became a high priest and judge over Israel—basically the intermediary between God and His people. He was God’s listener and voice to communicate any vision, law, or prophecy the people needed to hear. He also oversaw the temple which made people able to submit their offerings and requests to God. A woman named Hannah—who was painfully unable to bear children—made the trek to Eli’s temple each year to plead for a child. Despite God’s lack of cooperation, she remained faithful. One year she told God that if He gave her a son, she’d give him back to serve the Lord.

1 Samuel 3:1 NLT says  … in those days messages from the LORD were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon … Despite God’s direct words being rare, in the second chapter of 1 Samuel, a man of God came to Eli with a flashing service-engine-soon light from God. Eli’s sons were sinning against God and His people by robbing the temple offerings and seducing women at the temple gates. Eli knew, but just scolded his sons and allowed them to remain in their temple roles. His car was overheating, but he just added some more coolant.

Meanwhile, Hannah miraculously gave birth, weaned her son Samuel, and brought him back to Eli’s temple to serve God just as she promised. If Hannah had a car, she’d have probably changed the oil every 3,000 miles. As Eli’s temple helper, Samuel heard a voice call his name three times one night. Despite his role as God’s listener, it took Eli three times of Samuel coming to him before he realized the voice might be coming from God. Finally, Eli seemingly remembered something he had once learned. “Next time you hear the voice, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.”’ God spoke to Samuel the fourth time. Sadly, the message he received was doom for Eli’s family.

By the time Eli remembered how to hear, he was on the side of the road, engine on fire, with no way home. Eli’s career was to listen to God. With Jesus as our High Priest, God’s Word as our guide, and the Holy Spirit as our helper, we no longer need an intermediary. We are both Hannah and Eli. We get to hear from God directly and follow Him devotedly. But, when God doesn’t make sense and seems uncooperative, are we like Hannah who remained faithful, or like Eli who became a selective listener?

Pause: Take a look under the hood, open up your ears, speak directly to God, and make sure you’re a servant who’s ready to listen.

Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10, 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

In Good Company

There is a difference between people like Eli from yesterday’s story, who experience pain because they haven’t been listening, and people like the Apostle Paul, who experience pain despite their devotion and steady requests to God. However, while the people may be different, the pain feels the same. It hurts and leaves us asking, “Why, God?”

Have you ever grabbed a rose thinking the thorns had been removed? The result is a pins-and-needles poke followed by a bone-throbbing reminder of your mistake. Yet, the thorn Paul describes in our reading today from 2 Corinthians chapter 12 is different. Paul describes a thorn that remains in his flesh. Ouch.

Paul wants the Corinthians to know about his thorn because the thorn causes him to rely on God, and he hopes the Church of Corinth will rely on God, too. God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. If Paul stopped there, this concept would be a little easier. We could envision a God who swoops in and picks us up when we’re too weak to walk.

In verses, seven, eight, and 10, it gets a little trickier. These verses suggest that Paul’s thorn—which he also describes as a messenger of Satan—was not a seldom occurrence of weakness but rather a steady companion. Harder still, Paul explains this thorn was given to him as a strategy to poke a hole in his ego. Suffering so that God’s work could not be claimed as Paul’s work. In essence, Paul calls his perpetual pain a gift that reveals God’s true comfort for man. In other words, pain reveals God’s “together-strength” that transforms our failure into His perfection.

Who else received thorns as a strategy to unveil God’s perfect strength for our persistent weakness? Jesus.

When God seemed inattentive to Paul’s pain, he could have assumed God was either absent or abusive. Instead, he recognized that pain put him in good company. What are some thorns you need to see for their roses? How does your pain provide you opportunities to partner with God in ways you couldn’t if He took it away?

Pray: God, I’ve been asking You to remove this trial. Today, I ask You to reveal Your power in my trial. Will You show me how Your strength can be seen through my weakness? Is there someone I can extend your powerful comfort to? Jesus, would You let me feel Your company today?

Scripture: John 11:1-44

When, Jesus?

If you’ve lived at least a couple of decades, you’ve most likely experienced death. No matter who we lose or how we lose them, death is arguably the most difficult thing we face. Maybe it’s the seeming finality of death that is so hard. In comparison, every other pain we experience seems treatable, preventable, repairable, or at least tolerable.

For many followers of Christ, the moment we realize a loved one is really gone is when we experience our deepest doubts of God. Streaming thoughts turn into silent prayers, “God, how could You let this happen?” and, “Are you even listening?” and, “Do you care?” and, “Are you even there at all?” Basically, we accuse God of being either an imposing fake or an absent jerk.

When close friends and followers of Jesus—Mary and Martha—told him their brother Lazarus was sick and dying, Jesus did not come. Even though He was only a day’s walk away, Jesus let Lazarus die, then let Mary and Martha grieve alone before finally coming. When He did arrive, Lazarus was already decaying in a sealed grave. Mary stayed home, and Martha let Jesus know that He was late. Then, Jesus called for Mary, who came weeping. Jesus’ responses to Mary and Martha are some of the most powerful scriptures in the Bible. When Martha told Jesus he could have kept Lazarus from death, Jesus responded, “… I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die … ” Then, when Mary wept, Jesus wept.

Jesus’ tears paint not only a picture of a God who hurts when we hurt, but also a God who hurts because we hurt. He is not the origin of death and separation. Sin is. He is the very one who looked death in the eye and conquered it for us. He understands, better than we, the true effects of death in the world and life He created for us. So, just because He doesn’t stop pain from happening to us, doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt Him too.

If you finish the story, you know Jesus wept right before he brought Lazarus back to life. He also knows that for whoever believes in Him—including people we love—death is not permanent, and life with Him is eternal. Does it still hurt when people die? Yes. Does God hurt with us? Yes.

Pause: When you lost a loved one, how did you characterize God? Fake, jerk, late, hurting with you, something else? How does knowing, “Jesus wept,” change your experience?

Scriptures: Isaiah 9:2-7, John 14:6, Psalms 145:8-9, Matthew 28:20, John 11:25, Isaiah 53:5

The Same Jesus

The same Jesus who called Lazarus back from the grave is calling you to abundant life. You may be lonely; He is with you always. You may be anxious; He cares for you. You may be tired; He is rest. You may be lost; He is the way. You may be angry; He is love. You may be broken; He was wounded to heal you. You may be addicted; He is freedom. You may be in darkness; He is a great light. You may be dying; He is the resurrection and the life.

When God seems inattentive, uncooperative, and late, these are the moments when we get to decide what we really believe about Him. Do we believe the Bible stories we read? Even when we decide to believe the Bible is true, we may still sometimes feel like God doesn’t make sense. Yet, we can be sure the same Jesus still hears our cries, shares our pain, and saves our lives. He is our “together-strength.”

Pray: Jesus, thank You for calling me out of the grave. I choose to trust You to care deeply about what I’m facing, and I want You to face it with me. Thank You for taking on my shortcomings and my pain when You experienced brutal death and separation from God on the cross. Let’s do this!