Into the Depths of Why? 4

I love Adam Hamilton’s new book, Why?: Making Sense of God’s Will, which explores the great questions bundled into the question “Why?” His last chp, called “Why God’s Love Prevails,” is about how to live, how to think, in light of the previous chapters and, in particular, in light of tragedies in this life. Adam is simply at his finest in this chp.

There are four themes in knowing how to face life that sometimes forces us to ask “Why?”

How have you helped people live through difficulties? What themes have been wise and redemptive?

First, God is with us. We fear. Sometimes something happens and the note of fear strikes into the fiber of who we are and what we think — we fear the worst. But God is with us. E.g., Josh 1:9; Isa 41:10; Ps 23:4; 56:3. We may fear what may happen to our children or someone we love, and we can’t know that all things will be good, but we can know that God is with us and with them.

Second, God works through us. God made a world in which he gives us the opportunity to act redemptively in this world. Wow, he’s got a great story about helping a woman.

Third, God forces evil and suffering to serve us. Sometimes we suffer; sometimes those we love suffer; sometimes those we don’t love suffer. But the promise is that God “forces evil and suffering to serve God” (87-88). His two best friends died, and he tells the story of Emmitt Till, who was brutally murdered and whose murder became a powerful source of change.

Finally, ultimately hardship an suffering, evil and sin, will not have the final word. Following Good Friday is Easter. I hadn’t seen this from Frederick Buechner: “Resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing” (98). God will ultimately triumph.