Principle 1: It's OK to not Understand

 

Many people have been asking how I am doing lately. I can’t imagine why, except that perhaps it has something to do with having broken my back in an aircraft accident while returning from a service trip recently. My physical healing is progressing well. There have been a number of answers to prayer in that area and that make me very grateful for the thousands who are interceding on my behalf. That is truly a ministry of Christ - asking the Father to heal and retore the physically broken.

However, there is another side to suffering that I wanted to give you all an update on and that is the spiritual / emotional side. It would be easy to be devastated in my situation as I am anticipating my first child in a couple months, I am trying to finish my house to be ready for her and, generally speaking, I thrive on extensive outdoor activity and physical work. Now, I won’t even be able to pick up my child out of a crib until she’s several months old. But instead of devastation, I feel your prayers holding me up and constantly reminding me of some important biblical principles for suffering. Principles I have the privilege of revisiting and teaching year after year with my students, but principles which mean nothing until they are applied in the context of real-world suffering.

Principle 1: It’s OK to not understand:

We go over this in Job every year. He is devastated physically and emotionally by the loss of everything he has and his response in 1:21 is

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

And naked I will depart.

The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;

May the name of the Lord be praised.”

It sure seems like he weathered that well, but then you realize it doesn’t stop there. The enemy doubles down and through Job’s “friends” brings 35 chapters worth of continued torment in trying to convince him that it’s his fault. This pushes Job to a pretty dark place where in 18:6 he even says, “…then I know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me.” But finally, God, not being content to leave his friend languishing in despair, meets him and gives him a virtual tour of the universe. One which, oddly enough, doesn’t explain any of his suffering but rather showcases the incredible sovereignty and wisdom of God. At the end of it, Job’s response is,

“Surely I spoke of a thing I did not understand,

Things too wonderful for me to know…

My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.

Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

(42:3,5)

Job is humbled by the knowledge that God knows more than he could ever possibly hope to about what’s going on in the background of his suffering (which suddenly seems quite small in the grand scheme).

I think what he finds and what I find through this experience, is that because God is both good and wise, I can trust him unreservedly without having to understand the meaning of it all. He is truly worthy of the kind of trust that says, “shall we accept good from God and not trouble?”