A few weeks ago I heard a story of how Charles Greenaway spent his life as a missionary to the continent of Africa and Europe for over 20 years. An account is told of his young daughter with him on the mission field. She became deathly sick and feverish, becoming bedfast for many days. During this time, he was scheduled to preach a special service, so he left her home with family and fulfilled his appointment. While in the service, God moved in a miraculous way. A couple with a young girl just about the age of his daughter came forward and asked for prayer, as their daughter was so sick they didn’t know what to do. As the Rev. Greenaway prayed for the girl, God instantly healed her and everyone went away rejoicing. He gained hope in his heart that when he returned home that his daughter may be on the side of the bed, eating, talking or at least improved from her condition. However when he came home, she had not gotten better but worse. He spent a few more hours with her before she passed away.
After the initial shock of what had happened wore down, Charles went outside to his back yard and prayed. Crying bitterly he told God he didn’t understand why things happened this way, and the pain of his heart was more than he thought he could bear. Yet in the middle of his pain he made this statement. God, I don’t know why you took my little girl, but I refuse to go to hell over a mystery.
May times the unanswered questions of life try to scar our thinking. We can concentrate so much on the mysteries of life that we overlook the things we know to be true. The Psalmist Asaph in Psalm 73 did this as well. He started the Psalm by saying “God I know you are good, especially to those who have a clean heart”, but when he looked around and saw all the trouble and wickedness in his life, he almost lost his way.
We can tend to look at the quandaries of life to a point that we do not trust or serve God because of we cannot understand him. We ask questions like, If God is so good, then why do people suffer? or Why didn’t God heal my grandma when I asked him to? or If God is sovereign, why is there evil in the world? Many of these things can leave us in despair and downtrodden as they consume our thoughts.
But if we heed what Asaph did, we can make the same choice to trust God in spite of the mystery. There are things that we know about God to be true. He is good. He is merciful. He loves us with an eternal type of love. How do we know this? Because He sent his son to take our judgment despite our blaming him. After all his questions, Asaph went to church, and there he understood. The sin that causes all this evil will one day be eradicated. Wicked people will be judged, and God will wipe all tears away from our eyes. In the meantime, let us choose the truth that we know. God’s ways are higher than ours. His plans are more than we can understand. And his love is greater than we can ever imagine. Our part is not to forsake him over a mystery, but to trust Him because of the truth. Come to him today and you will find that, even though you might not get answers to your mysteries, you will find that He is better than you ever imagined Him to be. And his truth, the truth of who he really is, will set you free!
The writer is the pastor of Northtowne Church of God, Sidney.
