Faith and Understanding

We got a lot of rain last week, and a lot of wind.  We did not, however, get a blizzard like they did in the western part of the state, nor did we get tornadoes like they did in the southeast corner of the state.  We just got rain, which is something we very much needed.  We were very fortunate.  We can and should be very grateful to God for that.

At the same time, we know that this did not happen because of anything we've done.  We know we're not somehow better than the people in other parts of the state.  We did not get better weather than they did because we somehow deserve better.  It's just the way it was.  We and they both have to accept that, whether we like it or not, because none of us has a choice.

There are a lot of things in life that work that way, it seems.  Good things seem to happen to some people and bad things seem to happen to some people.  One person gets cancer and another does not.  One person is born in freedom and another is born in tyranny.  It's not because the one is better than the other.  It's not because the one deserved good things and the other did not.  It's just the way it is.  And we all have to accept it, whether we like it or not, because none of us has a choice.

There is so much about the world we don't understand.  There is so much about God that we don't understand, too.  We don't understand why God has arranged things the way God has.  We don't understand why God allows some things to happen.  We don't understand why some people seem to get all the luck and others don't.  There are so many things about the way life works that just don't make sense to us.  And saying “that's just the way it is” is not a very satisfying response.

We wish we could understand.  We wish God would explain it to us.  We wish everything about the world made sense to us.  But that's not the way it is.  God, in God's wisdom, chooses not to explain everything to us.

We assume there's a reason for that.  Maybe, if we understood it all, it would somehow be bad for us.  Maybe we wouldn't understand the explanation if we got one.  Maybe God's logic operates on a different level.  The analogy I've used is if we tried to explain advanced calculus to a three-year old.  Advanced calculus makes sense—but only if our brains are far enough advanced to understand it.  Maybe God's logic works the same way:  it makes sense, but our brains are simply not far enough advanced to understand it.  I don't know.  All we can do is trust that somehow, in a way we cannot understand, it does make sense, and that someday, when we go to heaven, we'll understand it all.

For the time being, though, all we can do is take it on faith.  And that's okay.  Because you know, nowhere in the Bible does God tell us we need to understand everything. Instead, God asks us to trust.  God asks us to have faith.  And God promises to be with us always:  when good things happen, when bad things happen, when life happens.  God will always be there, and God will always help us through whatever we need to get through.