Why?

I'm a bit shaken today. I've received an email from our District Office for an urgent prayer concern for one of our retired pastors, his wife and family. His daughter and her family were the victim of a horrific home invasion. Perhaps you saw it on the news: a doctor and his family in Connecticut, the Dr. William Petit was severely beaten, his wife Jennifer Hawke-Petit and their daughters Hayley & Michaela were murdered and then their home set ablaze by the invaders in order to cover their tracks. I don't know this colleague of mine nor his family, but my heart is breaking for them all the same.

What perpetrates such evil? He was a endocrinologist, his wife a nurse and the head of the health department of a private boarding school, so I'm assuming they were fairly wealthy. The news describes their home as part of an "upper-middle class neighborhood." And the news reports that one of the intruders forced Jennifer to go to the bank to withdraw money. And while I can't justify robbery, on some level I get why some people would feel desperate enough to force someone to give them their money. But to violate these innocent people - to make a deliberate attempt to destroy their lives and bring such devastation to those who know and love these people? I guess in a nutshell I'm asking the age-old question - why?

Since I've entered pastoral ministry over 12 years ago, there is one thing I hear over and over again from people - "We're not supposed to ask why." I always challenge that comment, because of two things: 1) God has made it part of our human nature to seek to make sense of things, and 2) If our Lord Jesus Christ could quote Psalm 22:1, asking, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me," as he hung dying on a cross, I think we can ask God why, also.

It's okay to ask why, the key is where we take our "whys." When we take our "whys" to God, we take them to the right place. It's okay to ask God "why" - don't always expect an answer - don't always expect things to make sense - but, in taking our "whys" to God, we allow God into our hearts and minds, and there God can transform our fears, our anxieties, our anger, our jealousies, our yearnings, etc. If we take our "whys" to God, then God can begin to heal our deepest hurts. If we take our "whys" to God, God can begin to help use the worst of things in our lives for good.

Some of the earliest theological questions people asked were questions of theodicy -- If God is good and God is all powerful, then why is there evil in the world? I can give you all the theological explanations that have been used down through the ages to explain how a good and all-powerful God would allow evil to exist in this world. I enjoy discussing and grappling with the answer to this question, but in the end I'm faced with this question: "What do you say to someone who has experienced the kind of evil like what we read about in the Hawke and Petit families?"

I can't explain with certainty why these kinds of evil things happen in the lives of good people. I do believe that God created human beings with free will - and some human beings use their free will to choose evil. God's desire is that we would choose God's way and God's grace enables us to do so. Some have chosen their own way and while I appreciate all of the explanations of why people might get caught up in destructive patterns, ultimately there is no excusing this kind of behavior. I'm not sure that anyone can offer a pat answer as to why these kinds of things happen - ultimately only God knows.

What we know is that our good, all-powerful God is always with us. Jesus promised us that when after his crucifixion and resurrection he said to his disciples, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)

So, while we cannot assert we know for certainty why these things happen, we do know that our God is with us, and if we trust him with everything in our lives, our God will work out everything - even the most heinous of things that happen in our lives - for good. We know every detail of our lives of love for God is worked into something good. (Romans 8:28, The Message)

So what do we say to someone who is suffering so much? Sometimes we can't say anything, all we can do is offer our presence. Before we offer any explanation, maybe we just show up and state that we don't know what to say, but we're there to uphold those who suffer, offering them the light of Christ when there seems to be only darkness around them. Go be the best Jesus you can be to someone today --- and hug your family and tell them you love them.

By God's Grace,
Michelle