Rethinking "Where is God When . . . "

by Steve Llewellyn          

    Not long ago, I listened as an acquaintance of mine voiced her own version of the question "If God is good, how could He let (fill in the blank) happen?”

While I think there are some good answers to that hard question, this time I saw something new in it.

          I realized the question is, in essence, saying that there are some problems we believe God should solve. It made me think, maybe that's the point. Maybe part of the point of all of this pain, all of the terrible evil the human race suffers, is to help us see that we need God.

          In considering this topic, I think it's also important to say this: I don't think that God is making this happen so we'll want Him. Rather, I think He's letting us have our own way (sometimes individually, sometimes as a race) and letting us experience the consequences.

This was the choice He gave us, after all: His way, or our way. Our ancestors chose their way, and we've been stuck with it ever since. And still, despite the consequences, so many people still want their own way. When and if they want God's involvement, it's usually to make things go their way in matters beyond their power.

          So when we ask, "God, where were You when this happened?", I can almost imagine God saying with a bit of sarcasm, "Oh, so now you want Me involved?" Of course, I think God is more compassionate than that as regards the hurts we feel, but I do think we should better understand what's really going on before we start accusing God.

A pastor I know says, "The wrath of God is not the big smackdown we get at the end for choosing our own way, but rather suffering the consequences of our way." God's way is perfect and good; the outcome is good. Our way is terribly flawed, and from it we reap death and destruction—in our souls, our relationships, our bodies, our planet, and in everything else we have a controlling say in.

          Seen in this light, we can turn the question around, from an accusation to a realization. When we want to say, "Why didn't God intervene?” we can realize instead, "This is what happens when God doesn't intervene. This is what happens when God's will is not done. This is what happens when people get their way instead of choosing to go along with (submit themselves to) God's way." If we can see this, if we can see that this pain is not God's will and plan for us, but rather the result of humankind's choice to refuse God's will, we will learn perhaps our greatest lesson—that we need God to intervene. We need him to be in charge. When we see that our question "Where was God when. . ." is truly an admission of "We needed God in that situation," we can stop asking the question and say instead, "God, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven- please, because our own way is killing us."

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