Hard Questions

Note: This blog was origninally posted November 20, 2007 on MySpace.

In this week's blog, I'd like to take you on a quick journey. It's a journey that goes from the wide, open fields of doubt and skepticism to the narrow path of belief and acceptance. To start this journey, I'd like to share a thought that occurred to me yesterday. Why do Christians tend to acknowledge God's presence when something good occurs, but blame outside circumstances when something bad occurs? An example might be helpful here. Let's say that we pray for God to keep us safe as we drive during the upcoming holiday. If we were then to hear about an accident that occurred over the holidays on the news, we might tend to not blame God, but the conditions that surround the accident. "The driver must have been driving too fast." Do we believe that God protects some and doesn't protect others? Don't accidents occur even to those who pray for safe travels? We all make driving mistakes; what role does God's grace play? Another example might be cancer. When someone is diagnosed with cancer, most Christians wouldn't blame God for that person's cancer. However, when that same person survives their bout with the disease, most Christians would praise God for his hand of healing in the person's life. Does God cause cancer, or does he only heal it?

So why throw out a prayer for protection? Why believe that God is really looking out for us? These are the type of hard questions that people often ask. I don't have the answers to these questions. In thinking about these queries, I quietly ask myself why I believe in God when things aren't fair or logical in the world. I then remember the story of the widow who gave a couple copper coins, almost worthless, to the temple treasury. Jesus was impressed with her giving, not because of the amount that she gave, but because she gave everything she had to live on. Do you hear truth in that? What about the verse that tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves? The golden rule? Loving those who hate you? Because of the truth I hear in these verses, I want to believe in God. The hard questions are always going to be there. Sometimes they trip me and I fall in the open field of doubt. Then I'm reminded of the truth I've read in the Bible, and I stand up again to continue my journey on the narrow path.

It's easy to choose disbelief. There's plenty of messed-up crap in the world to make us question the presence of God. Do you ask hard questions? Do you want to find some truth in this life? Do you care? I serve a God who can handle all the questions I could ever throw at him. I may not find all of my answers, but that's not surprising. In the shadow of God, I'm about as large and intelligent as a grain of sand.