Why do Bad Things Happen

Matt had a really helpful section in his sermon on Sunday about the sovereignty of God. That's the technical language, God is in charge of everything. We can all probably say that with our lips, but in our lives, not so much–a point he made by describing Peter's sinking down into the water, even with Jesus standing right there looking at him. This kind of sinking Matt pulled together with the disciples standing on the mountain in Galilee, although, being from the west coast of the US, it's very hard for me to agree with the appallation “mountain”. Jesus should have said, go to one of the small hills, the one I tell you about, or something like that. Anyway..I'm so easily distracted…the disciples are up on the mountain and everything has turned out Well. Jesus is alive. They're all together. There is hope and the promise of the Holy Spirit and everything. And Jesus says to them, 'all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me', which is a good thing, because Jesus is good, and they're with him. But before that there's this devastating little line, “but some doubted”. We look down the mountain, said Matt, at all the chaos and despair and horror of the world, and even though Jesus is right there next to us, we doubt, we sink into the chaos along with everyone else.

So yesterday, when I went back to Amos because I missed the 'let justice roll down like water' line and I wanted to just gaze at it again, I ran into this difficult bit:

3 “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?

4 Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing?

5 Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing?

6 Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?

7 “For the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.

The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?”

How totally shattering, I thought, to have it just stare at you from the page, the drum beat of obvious cause and effect, of things happening in an orderly and obvious way. I might say, does a child jump from the top bunk and not smack her lip? Do I choose not to do laundry and not have then to face a small catastrophe? Do I forget to go to the store and we not have milk? The most basic thing in our lives, if you do this then this will happen, is rolled out here, cause and effect, all building up to the most obvious and basic of all fundamental truth, “does disaster come to a city, unless The Lord has done it?”

I spend a lot of time as a Christian trying to let God off the hook, or take him out of the equation. Somehow, in my dismal idiocy, I think if God isn't in the mix, I'll be in charge, and then everything will be ok. I don't pray like this. In my constant on going prayers I am always begging God to do what I know he can do–save, heal, relent, stop disaster, protect, preserve, build, do good–but the anxiety of looking down the mountain overcomes me. Coupled with the very basic horrific idea that we don't, especially in this culture, go around saying, 'yeah, that very terrible thing that is happening, not only can God stop it, but because he isn't, he wants it to happen.' Instead of saying that we say things like, 'I don't know what God is doing,' and 'his ways are not our ways,' and 'God is in charge, maybe he will do something.' I say that last one a lot. Or rather, May he do something. Funny thing though, he is already doing something, it's just not the thing I planned for him to do.

The fact that this is true, 'does disaster come upon a city, unless The Lord has done it' is borne out in the true reality that every time something bad happens, the vast majority of people on earth cry out 'why did God let this happen?' Even people who claim not to believe in him. This is true, we know in the depths of our flesh that this is true, but most of the time it is too terrible to look at it. Yet another good reason to sleep past your morning bible reading. Nevertheless, for the one standing on the mountain with Jesus, or walking around in the mire of the world having been sent there by him, for the purpose to extending his kingdom and displaying his glory and speaking his truth, this is meant to be a comfort. Does anything happen at all unless The Lord has done it? No, obviously no. Very basicslly no. Nothing happens that is outside of his control and purpose and knowledge and understanding. Does a baby die and he does not know or have made eternal provision for that baby? A baby anywhere in the entire world? Syria, Iraq, Brooklyn? No. He knows. He is sovereign. Does human justice fail and the wrong person sometimes go free? Yes. But does God know? Will he someday put it right? Yes. Yes he will. He knows, he will act. Maybe not in a way that we can see, but on the last day, every tiny invisible injustice will be swept away by God's perfect cleansing justice. Do I sometimes, or rather, every moment, fail to do the thing he has called me to do? Yes. Does he know and have already accounted for it and woven it into his plan for all humanity? Yes.