One would be hard pressed to deny the existence of evil in our world. We hear about it every day on the news, see it in Internet headlines and some live with it daily. I will admit that while I live my little life, I’ve been insulated from this evil having much of an impact on me. But as we experience more and more violence, division, and deceit, we can no longer remain insulated regardless of whether we are impacted personally or not. The apostle Paul wrote, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:22). Over the last year, I have had an increased yearning for my heavenly home. Haven’t you?
Sad to say, these horrific circumstances are nothing new. My first year of teaching, the Columbine massacre occurred, and I got a lot of flack from my students when I turned in a boy who threatened to “shoot up” the school in the same fashion. According to The Washington Post, mass shootings to date in 2021 have increased by 30% from 2020, and that number had increased from 2019 by another 30%.
Story after story—it never ends. We have the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan, devastation from increased weather extremes, political upheaval, the pandemic…the list goes on and on. It’s impossible to bury our heads in the sand and pretend it’s not happening. When I wake in the middle of the night, my first response is to pray. When I awake in the morning, I pray. I cannot stop thinking about those who are being affected anymore.
This is not a bad thing. We need to have a have a heart for those suffering, whether it’s in our own backyard or a third-world country thousands of miles away. I’ve recently been praying that God will fill me with compassion, “to break my heart for what breaks yours” as the lyrics go in the old Hillsong United’s Hosanna. I’m ashamed to admit that it’s taken this type of connection to open my eyes. And now that they’re open…it’s harder to find the joy we, as believers in Jesus Christ, should have regardless of our circumstances. And I’m questioning, “Why?” This has directed me to revisit the book If God is in Control Then Why…? by Craig Hill. On page six he writes, “many people who have personally experienced great injustice or evil will state with their mouths that God is good, but in their heart of hearts they don’t believe it.”
I have never personally experienced great injustice—and yet I can understand how those who have will question the goodness of God. Is that sacrileges? I don’t think so. Our God can handle doubt and questions—after all, He made us to be thinkers, didn’t He? The premise of this book is that God is not in control, but He is sovereign. Hill writes on page 11, “God has supreme power to do anything He chooses but has voluntarily limited Himself to work through delegated authority.” So, basically, God will sometimes intervene and sometimes not.
There have been many times in my life that God has not intervened on my behalf, and the end result has been abundant blessing. I hold onto this in times of difficulty. But I can’t wrap my head around how abundant blessing will come from the death of more than three dozen people (many of them children) in the Waverly, Tennessee flood. Or the blessing around the genocide of millions of Jews during World War II by psychopathic Hitler.
We can go back through the Bible and find instance after instance of what appears to our human mind to be pointless destruction, persecution and evil. It began when Adam allowed a serpent to deceive him made more blatant when Cain murdered his own brother for no reason many of us could comprehend. I have to trust that God is good, even when I see evidence that may prove otherwise. Because at the end of this life, it all comes down to one thing—faith.
Comments 1
This is a powerful message. I have struggled with my faith numerous times, but I always feel the pull of the Holy Spirit calling me back. I too live my little life, wrapped in a bubble. I haven’t watched the news in a couple of years. I pray for my family and friends. Sometimes it’s difficult to look beyond our lives. Thank you, Jennifer for the wake up call.