Do You Ever Ask God Why?

Or do you ever WANT to ask God why but don’t?

While this isn’t an uncommon question for agnostics, (If God IS there why would he let X happen) it is also very common for Christians who DO believe to ask the same thing.

First things first, just understand God isn’t offended by the question why. If you’re going to have a good relationship with your Father honesty is the first and most important building block. We all want to know why and someday we will.

But sometimes, why is the wrong question. God did an amazing thing when He set this world in motion. He first gave it a bunch of rules, like a very in depth video game. There was gravity, chemical reactions, weather, and more. All these things with their own random counters. And then He gave us free will and allowed us to choose the paths we take. We can listen to what He wants us to do, or we can go on our own.

This all means one thing, sometimes tragedies just happen. He may step in before and miraculously stop it in some inexplicable way. He may step in during and save someone in some crazy way. Think of when an area of land is destroyed by a tornado, earthquake, or hurricane and somewhere in the middle is one house standing. And He may step in after and find ways to work good out of the bad.

God doesn’t want us to suffer, sometimes that just happens. But God DOES want to be there for us when we are suffering to do something great with us, for us, or through us. Sometimes the right question is, “What will you teach me from this?” Sometimes it’s, “How will you use me to help prevent this in the future?” Tragedies breed innovation. Tragedies bring communities together. And tragedies help show us flaws we may have on a personal, familial, community, or governmental level. And that is when God can really start working through us.

This all came to my mind as one of my best friends asked for me to pray. A family in her close circle of friends had a horrible tragedy occur Saturday night. This family was at a birthday party at a local lake when the father ran over his own son (a toddler) when he went to backup his SUV and didn’t see him run behind.

There are really no words for such a horrible tragedy. The question why is so easy to ask in this situation and that’s what I was asking last night. My best friends grandson was best friends with this child and even at his young age would be wondering where his friend is. The parents having to deal with this. The father having to live with this the rest of his life. I can’t even begin to imagine how they must feel and my heart is heavy thinking about it.

And I can’t see what good God could bring out of such a tragedy either. Maybe He will use the story to raise awareness of an issue we haven’t given much thought. Maybe He will use these parents to help counsel other parents who go through similar tragedies.

If you would like to offer your prayers you can head over to our Facebook page where I posted about this earlier today. If you have similar stories let us know. And if you have difficult questions I’d love to hear them.

It’s not taboo to ask God tough questions, but rather it’s taboo to hold back the tough questions.