Why God?

Yesterday, a wonderful friend and mentor was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer (and no, she has never smoked).  When I heard the news I couldn’t help but ask, why God?  Why her?  She is a wonderful pastor, teacher, wife, mother, and woman of God.  She does so much for You, she has changed the lives of so many people. Why God?  A few weeks ago my best friend from college and matron of honor in my wedding lost her dad to breast cancer that had metastasized to his brain.  He was a wonderful father and grandfather, and a faithful Christian.  Why God?  As I sat at the bedside of my mother-in-law who died the day after Christmas last year of breast cancer that had also metastasized to her brain, with her children and grandchildren around her, I again could help but ask, why God?

Why do wonderful people have to suffer?  Why does someone who has never smoked, is in great health, and done amazing work for You and Your Kingdom have to get lung cancer?  Why did Brad have to die with so much of his life left to live?  Why did Tamara, Greg, and Chuck have to die knowing that my daughter would never know 3 of her grandparents?  Why God?

When I started out in ministry I thought I needed to know all the answers.  I needed to know and be able to answer any question someone might ask from a small detail in the Bible to the bigger questions of why God does or does not do something and why bad things happen to good people.  If I was not able to answer right at that moment, I better darn well be able to find the answer and get back to them asap.  I thought that if I didn’t have an answer I was letting God down somehow.  I needed to be able to provide an answer for Him.

Now, I think back and laugh at how naïve I was.  Naïve about my own abilities, naïve about what I thought I “needed” to do for God, naïve thinking God actually needed me to answer (God doesn’t actually need me to do anything, but hopefully He is able to use me to do lots of things).  I now know there are questions I can’t answer, and trying to answer them does a disservice to God and to the person asking.  Trying to answer with a platitude that we so often hear does not honor the sovereignty, mystery, and grace of God and, at times, it minimizes the pain and suffering the person may be going through.  There are questions of faith that we need to provide clear answers to, but there are a few others we simply can’t answer.  Instead of trying to answer the “why God” questions, sometimes I just need to trust that God really is sovereign and full of grace and mercy.  I need to trust that God really does have a plan even though I don’t see it.  I need to remember that no matter what we face in life; God is there with us every step of the way.  I then need to help others remember all of these things as I have the honor to walk these hard roads with them.

Why God?  I don’t know, but I trust that You do, that you are gracious, merciful and abounding in love, that You have a plan, that You are working all things out for my good, and that you are always with me.  (Psalm 86:15, Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:28, Matthew 28:20)

God bless, Rev. Liz Arakelian, www.LivingHopeEC.org

PS  Please keep my friend, Mary, in your prayers as she now deals with the whirlwind of a completely unexpected stage 3 lung cancer diagnosis.