Tragedy always makes us question. We look for answers, we look for comfort, and we find damn little of either one.
Truth be told, there are no answers. We can psychologize all we want and analyze the killer’s childhood, stress factors, even what he had to eat. We can talk about the effects of violence in movies. But the fact remains that nothing will give us an answer that satisfies.
Many people say “Turn to God.” I find that less than satisfying. In fact, for me that just raises more questions.
I struggle with questions when people who have experienced the tragedy and have come through it say, “God was so good to us.” Yes, he was. I rejoice with you that your loved one has experienced something miraculous. But what about those who died, who didn’t see a miracle, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was God any less good in those situations?
It sometimes seems so.
It’s no wonder we fall into the trap of thinking, “Maybe I didn’t pray hard enough. Maybe I’m not good enough. Maybe if I would have …”
The fact is, if God is who the Bible claims he is and if there is truth in the song we sometimes sing, then God is good all the time. God was good when he protected your loved one from tragedy. And God was good when he didn’t.
For me, that’s where the real question starts. Not so much why did God allow or why didn’t God prevent or why didn’t God protect. The real question is does God exist at all.
How’s that for an admission of stumbling? My husband was raised in a Christian home; I wasn’t. For him, the main question he struggles with is “am I saved?” I have no doubt about my salvation. If God is who he says he is then he can accomplish what he says, and that includes saving this particular sinner. No, my main question is “but does he really exist?”
It seems that the logical answer to the problem of evil–or theodicy, as the theologians put it–is that God doesn’t exist. It’s just logical. It’ not rational to believe in a supreme being who says he is good and yet doesn’t protect those who love him.
We compare God to a parent; we call him–and were encouraged by Jesus to call him–our heavenly Father. And yet I know what this mama bear here would have done if a man would have pointed a gun at one of my kids and I could have prevented it. If I could have prevented it, that man would be sorry his father had ever met his mother.
That’s the kind of parent most of us are.
But God, the one we call our heavenly Father, does nothing?
It’s more logical to say that God doesn’t exist. I understand why non-believers don’t believe. I understand why my atheist friend thinks I’m foolish for believing. I understand the comfort in saying that God doesn’t exist because then the questions aren’t raised.
I also know the traditional Christian answers. I’ve read the book of Job. I’ve read CS Lewis’ The Problem of Evil. (However, Lewis’ book A Grief Observed he basically admits that there are no answers that satisfy when grief envelopes us. Read it. There’s more comfort in sharing a fellow stumbler’s pain than in searching for answers.) I understand that the best answer any Christian may be able to offer is a simple “I don’t know.”
If you have read this far, then you may be waiting for me to offer my answer. I don’t have any. I don’t know. All I have is questions.
Only questions. No answers.
Stumbling Toward Grace 
I love your honesty and share your frustration. We live in an information age where answers seem to be at our fingertips. And yet God is not Google. There is no search engine for easy answers. Seeking God’s comfort is often the given answer. That is not always easy to receive or understand. Job went through a tremendous amount of pain without any answers. And even when God answered him, I am not sure how satisfying it was.
I like that — God is not Google. Not even wikipedia! Thanks for the comment.
Cher,
I love your post. Your honest questions, which if everyone is honest with themselves, will be able to understand. It is those questions and more that has led me to my passion in life. Not to find answers for others, but to obtain them for my own understanding, which somehow has been recognized by others through my blog. It has become an outlet of Searching for Truth, God’s Truth. I find I am amazed at what has been learned and I am truly grateful for the peace and comfort it has provided.
Thank you.
You’re right, there is no answer that is obvious. There always the easy answers, the ones I hated before accepting Christ and like no better now “We don’t have the mind of God, how can we understand” “It’s all in God’s marvelous plan” “God never gives more than you can handle”. I almost gag just typing these. God doesn’t prove Himself by making things easy for us, or giving us full understanding, and that’s ok with me but I wish He would leave His telephone number for the hard questions.
Two teams stand in their locker rooms and hear prayers for victory, when one team wins it must mean God favors one over the other, right? Wrong, God just doesn’t play football. There may be no clear answer as to why things happen as they do, and Christians don’t have a magical path where there are no bumps, but I believe God is there with us so we don’t take the bumps alone.
You’re exactly right. We don’t take the bumps alone, even if we’ve created the bumps at times.
Like you, I’ve always hated the easy answers. One of my most hated is “you didn’t pray hard enough.” Should I clench my fists and squinch my eyes closed? Should I turn red in the face? I don’t understand the “hard enough” part.