These Things Take Time

The sermon at church yesterday was a good one. It was one of those things where if it would have been preached exactly a year ago, you would’ve left thinking, That was a nice sermon. I’ll have to remember that for later. But because it happened when it did, I found it extremely beneficial. It was called “How can a good God allow suffering?” I just wanted to share some points that I found to be interesting from the sermon.

The pastor was saying how if God is all-good and all-powerful, then why can’t He just destroy evil? There are two potential answers to why He doesn’t destroy evil. The first is that God is not all-good and all-powerful, which we obviously know isn’t true. So the second is that evil will be destroyed someday, which must be the solution since we know that God is an all-good and all-powerful God. The pastor then went on to ask another question (as you can imagine, there were lots of questions asked during this sermon), which was “Why did God allow suffering in the first place?” If you look in the Bible in Genesis 2 and 3, you’ll see that God gave us a choice because He loves us. Another question was “Why doesn’t God just put an end to evil and suffering now?” I thought this answer was extremely interesting. If God was to put an end to evil and suffering right this second, who and what would be left? We are evil beings; from the beginning when Adam and Eve sinned against God, we’ve been born with a human nature to stray from God. So if God destroyed all evil and suffering, nothing would be left. Also, God is a patient God. As I’ve seen throughout my own life, through the hard times and suffering, there are more opportunities for God to be glorified. It’s totally true if you think about it. If bad things didn’t happen in our lives, no one would overcome anything. It wouldn’t be a struggle to get out of bed and return to normal life. We wouldn’t have stories of God helping us through those difficult situations because without evil, there would be no difficult situations! And even though evil sucks and suffering hurts, they are great opportunities to share your faith. God can be glorified through the hurt and sadness, if just for the simple truth that we are still alive and breathing. It’s a testimony to God’s goodness and power that we can still stand and go on with our lives after suffering whatever it may be.

There were also a few things that the pastor said that caught my attention and still have me thinking about them. One of them is this: Has God ever not done what He promised to do? Sure things happen and go wrong sometimes but God is still faithful and good. Something else he said was interesting to me: There is no trust without obedience and there is no hope without perseverance.

On the topic of evil, suffering, and all the questions that go along with those two things, I thought of a song that I’ve become quite fond of lately. Back in March, I saw Sanctus Real in concert. They just came out with a new CD and they played all their new songs. One of them caught my attention right away. The lyrics were just so true and captivating. Here’s a sample:

I want to know why pain makes me stronger / I want to know why good men die / Why am I so afraid of the dark, but I stray from the light? / I want to know why You gave me eyes when faith is how I see / And tell me, is it easier to doubt or harder to believe? / Oh, there’s so many questions stirring in me / And I’m wondering why / Sometimes the truth ain’t easy to find / I wanna know all the answers / But I’m learning that these things take time

I just think it’s so neat how God puts people or events in your life at just the moment you need them. The whole time during the sermon yesterday, this song was stuck in my head. And I just love it; it talks about questions we all have and tells us that we’ve got to give it time. We’re not going to figure everything out right away, and that’s okay. That’s how it’s supposed to be. In fact, we may never know the answers to some of the questions we have. But once our lives on earth are through and we get to heaven, those questions won’t matter anymore. All those questions are born out of evil and suffering, and how can such questions exist in a place without evil?

Also, I need to make a correction. My dear friend pointed out a mistake in my thinking. I don’t know if I wrote it late at night or what, but I got a little confused in my theology. Here’s what I originally said:

“That quote put a lot of things in perspective for me. I learned that while it was a part of God’s will that Cameron was taken home so early, in a weird way, it wasn’t. God didn’t want to take him at such a great part of his life. But because of the fall of man, we have a whole set of problems that come and affect God’s perfect will. But God is all-knowing, so He knew in advance that sin was going to mess up His perfect plans. But He still allows it to happen because of freewill and the sacrifice that was paid through Jesus’ death on the cross. Just because I discovered this, it didn’t make the pain go away. But it helped me work though everything and realize that I shouldn’t be mad or upset at God. God’s plan wasn’t to take Cameron on August 1, but because of all the sin of this world, it happened that way.”

I need to clarify a few things. First off, it was part of God’s plan for Cameron to be taken to heaven on August 1. Of course, we have free-will and will occasionally go against God’s plans. But ultimately, our lives go according to God’s plans. I really don’t know what I was thinking; perhaps I was thinking about how his life ended in an accident and that if there was no sin, accidents wouldn’t exist. I don’t know. But I apologize for going a little crazy on you. It wasn’t my intention to set you up to false thinking.