When a tragedy occurs, an injustice happens, and the world is going through a crisis, whether the world realizes it or not, everyone looks to the church.
They look to us for answers or they look to us with questions—questions such as:
"How can you say your God exists when the people in Afghanistan have undergone such a sadistic attack?"
"If your God was so in control, can you explain the earthquake in Haiti? Or Hurricane Ida in the south?"
"If God really is good, why is He allowing all of this bad to happen?"
"Not to mention, how can you claim He loves us so much only to let us suffer so deeply?"
And, before I feel an urge to shout these questions down with Scripture, clutch my chest in horror at the world's audacity to ask, or become offended that they would dare challenge my faith, you want to know something, readers?
I can't even blame them for asking.
Because, quite frankly, if I'm honest, I've asked a few of those questions myself.
Like, why did the earthquake in Haiti have to strike just moments after the devastating news about Afghanistan? And, why did the hurricane down South choose now as a good time to brew? And, why did the lives God loves so much have to be unjustly taken? Can I be honest with you, friend? I have found myself asking: Haven't we gone through enough, Lord!?
And, if you are at all panting in distress that those hard questions are being asked right here on your screen, my apologies for not warning you earlier, but this may not be the blog post for you.
Because, in my walk of faith, I've found that God doesn't shy away from hard things. He lets me ask the questions I'm way too ashamed to admit I have, and He lets me grieve the answers I don't have. And, I've often found that God draws even closer when I'm solely dependent on Him to help me understand. Therefore, my questions range from different levels of intensity, concerning the events that God allows to take place in the world. However, there is one question I'd like to highlight here on the blog today, as this question has been asked many times before in the wake of the world's recent tragedies. It's a question I am honored to answer here today:
"If God is able to do anything, why doesn't He come down and fix everything?"
And, now is your chance to breathe out a huge sigh of relief.
Because, you know what?
He already did.
Despite what many people believe about the gospel, the story is not a fairytale.
It's not some generational, wish-upon-a-star myth we, Christians, get excited about.
No—the gospel is the answer to the world's favorite question.
The gospel tells the story of how God—the Creator of the heavens and the earth—decided to send His Son, Jesus—God in flesh—down to earth to live an 100% human life while being 100% God, which meant He had to leave His comfortable, majestic throne where He was worshiped and adored nonstop in heaven to come down to a crazy, sinful world where He was rejected, despised, and mistreated.
In other words, Jesus knows what it's like to walk a mile in our shoes.
He knows what it's like to be in life-threatening natural disasters.
He knows what it's like to lose a close family member to an unjust death.
He knows what it's like to grieve the decisions of a worldly, corrupt government.
He knows what it's like to be angry.
He knows what it's like to weep.
He knows what it's like to mourn.
There is absolutely nothing on this earth we could walk through that Jesus Himself didn't.
Don't miss this, reader:
Jesus went through it all.
And, that is why I cling to Him. That is why I give Him worship. Because He's a God who gets it. He's a God who understands. And, having walked through every single part of the human experience, Jesus didn't just merely "fix" everything. More than that, He died for the sins of everyone. And, everyone who believes in Him will have an abundant life here on earth and eternal life with Him in heaven.
That's my reality check.
When the news gets too heavy to bear, when I feel like I can't take another bout of bad news, I check myself with the reality of the gospel, the reality of the cross, the reality of His resurrection, which gives me the best reason to still have hope.
It's not my way of dismissing what's happening in the real world. Instead, it's the way I live in the real world. Filled with faith, filled with hope, ready to serve everyone I'm called to. Because my God was humble enough to make my painful, sinful, dark reality His, and His life-giving, hopeful, and victorious reality mine.