Where Is God When Bad Things Happen?

Bad things happen. 

It is a part of life.

When they do, we often wonder where God was.

I posted something once about God when someone commented to my post "Where Was God At Auschwitz?"  

Certainly we can't ignore the reality of suffering in life and wonder why God allows bad things to happen.

Auschwitz was the largest of the German Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers. Over 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives there.  It is horrible stain on our history that these events ever took place.  So it is difficult to understand why God would have allowed this to happen.  

Could God have stopped the Holocaust from happening?  Yes, He could have.  Why didn't He?  Where was He?

What we have to understand about God is permission for horrible things to happen to people doesn't mean He approves of them. God’s allowing the Holocaust in no way suggests His approval of it. God is grieved by the sinfulness of man and the hardness of his heart. While nothing can justify the evil of the Holocaust, it did indirectly bring about an advancement in biblical prophecy. The Holocaust was a primary reason the White Paper of 1939 was rescinded, freeing European Jews to immigrate to Israel. Regardless of one’s political stance, the fact is that the 1948 restoration of an independent Jewish state helps to fulfill such biblical prophecies.

The blame for the Holocaust lies squarely on the shoulders of sinful humanity. The Holocaust was the product of sinful choices made by sinful men in rebellion against a holy God. If the Holocaust proves anything, it is the utter depravity of man. The real question of "Why did God allow Auschwitz?" should be "Why Did We?"

We cannot allow horrible things that we don't understand to keep us from trusting in God.  No one can adequately explain why God allows these things to happen.  We have to believe that there must be a reason for it.  We might not like that answer but we don't know the mind of God and not understanding shouldn't determine if we believe in Him or not.  

Even though I post positive things about trusting God, I still have trust issues at times when I suffer loss or experience difficult times in my life.  We all do.  Trusting in God isn't always easy.  I often wonder where God is at times and why He doesn't intervene to help.  I was scrolling recently and read a story about a couple who were leaving for a date in the parking lot of their apartment complex when they were random targets of a kidnapping.  They were taken away, mercilessly tortured and murdered in a community where you would never think something so horrible would happen.  The entire time I was reading this story I also wondered why God didn't send someone by to help them or stop it in some way.  They both died a horrible death for no reason.  

We can also look at the story of Job in the Old Testament.  Many like to point at the patience of Job but if you read the story, he also questioned God after God allowed Satan to take away everything and everyone around him.  Job demanded an explanation from God and in Job 38 God responded.  While there may be evil and suffering that God allows in the world which seems needless, tragic and unjust, God has the wider view and there may be a vast network of factors that make the same tragedy fit into a larger cause and effect pattern that ultimately works together.  It's just impossible for us as humans to know the mind of God and what He's doing.  

Obviously, none of us like that answer.  It really doesn't answer our question when bad things happen to us.  We are finite beings and our brains are not designed to take in the information necessary to make evaluations of God choices.  We are not God.  We are human.  We will never understand these things in this life.  

So where was God in Auschwitz or when our loved one dies?  God is right there with us.  Although He could have prevented it, for some reason He chose not to but that doesn't mean that He is absent.  These are the times our trust is tested.  No, there aren't any easy answers or memes we can post to overcome those questions but we have to find a way to trust God's wisdom when we encounter suffering rather than trying to figure out the reasons for it.

How the *#$% Can You Live with Difficult People?

Ever had to deal with a difficult person in your life?

Haven't we all?

I remember praying desperately once for God to remove a difficult co-worker.  Guess what happened?  He answered my prayer!  The difficult person was transferred to another department only to be replaced by TWO difficult people.

Very funny God.  You have an amazing sense of humor.

Seriously though, I learned a lesson that we will always have the opportunity to deal with the difficult people in our lives.  There is a Proverbs that says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." Now I know what that means.

Difficult people challenge us and exposes parts of us that need work.  I often remember working with people who were very smart and arrogant.  I let them intimidate me because they were smarter than me until I finally realized that instead of feeling threatened by them that I needed to open my mind to learn from them.  

We are not going to avoid the difficult people in our lives.  I have stopped trying to pray difficult people out of my life.  Instead, I try to work with what I have been dealt.  Difficult people either knowingly or unknowingly know how to push our buttons and stir us up in some way.  You can agree with me that dealing with such people becomes a test in our how we show love, patience and grace. It's not an easy task.

I worked with a person once who seemingly would go out of his way to needle me and irritate me.  Most of the time I ended up not responding very well and later I was upset with myself on how I responded.  It sure is difficult to be a Christian or be any kind of witness when you are as mad as a hornet at someone.  Did I ever pass the test with this person?  No.  Never did.  I failed miserably every time.  It was a lesson in humility.

So, who pushes your buttons?  You probably immediately thought of someone.  What can you or I do about it?  My main fallback method is to AVOID them at all costs.  That's not the best way to deal with people you don't get along with.  

The important thing is knowing that you are going to have to encounter the difficult person.  This helps you to prepare yourself mentally.  The better you know the personality of this person; you can prepare yourself on how to disarm their comments or difficult behavior.  Sometimes you just have to resort to confronting their actions directly.   I worked with a person who started calling me "Uncle Miltie".  This is a HUGE irritant for me.   After about the second or third time, I stopped and told him that I would appreciate it if he didn't call me that.  I didn't yell or respond badly to him, but he got the point and never did it again.  The main thing is that I overcame my fear of confrontation to set some boundaries with this person.  Besides, he found other ways to be difficult.

What if you are related to the difficult person?

Yeah, that is a tough one but also know that just because someone shares family relations doesn't give them a free pass to be difficult.  If possible, try to respond gently but same issues with boundaries apply here also.  People always excused one of my relatives by saying "well, that's the way he is".   I'm sorry but that excuse doesn't fly with me.  You do NOT have to allow toxic people to rule your life just because they are your aunt, cousin or in-law.  

Sure, as believers in Christ was should always strive to respond with love to others but we live in the REAL world.  Some people are work.  We must try to make the effort, but we aren't superhumans.  The main thing to remember is that you and I have the control on whether or not the difficult person can "push our buttons".  Be confident in who you are.  Avoid taking things personally.  Hurting people usually hurt others.  There is a reason they are difficult.  

Most important of all - don't BE the difficult person.

When You Get Tired of Prayer

I'm tired of praying.

There I said it.

I hate to admit that but I’m just being real. Sometimes prayers seem to go nowhere.  I'm tired of praying and not seeing anything change.

I have always said that it would be a whole lot easier if prayer was more of a tangible dialogue. Prayer requires faith. It also requires a LOT of effort.  There are times - like now - that I am tired of making that effort without seeing any results.  

A prayer life is difficult to keep consistent.

For me, I can go a long stretch when I feel good about my prayer life but then there are times when it’s just not sparking my joy. I don’t like it when I pray and nothing happens. I’m sure we all feel that way.

I’m not saying that I want everything to go my way and that I get everything that I pray for but there are times that it seems like nothing is getting done and sometimes they even get worse and go in the opposite direction of what I am praying for. 

I know that God works in mysterious ways and He answers prayers the way He wants to answer them but knowing that doesn’t help. I have better momentum when I see results. Why pray if you don’t see results?

It’s hard.

I have been around church all of my life and I have seen the many ways how people pray. I have known many who pray very loud as if God is deaf as if the volume level of their prayer matters.

I have known many who pray in tongues.  I am not criticizing praying in tongues but I've never been able to understand how this is effective either.  Is it more effective than praying in English?  I haven't seen it or experienced it.  Praying in tongues doesn't make someone more spiritual or increase one's chances in getting prayers answered.

When I was younger I would beg and plead with God to answer my prayers and even make deals with God to answer them.  God doesn't make deals to answer our prayers unless it is His will to do so.  

I have become very quiet and meditative now. God knows my needs and I will ask but I also prefer to sit quietly and try to listen. Not with my physical ear but listen in my spirit. This is not easy to do. I will admit that I don’t think I am very good at it. I wonder sometimes if God even hears my prayers. I don’t think I’m spiritual enough.

When we feel like our prayers aren’t getting anything done, it’s important to remember that this is a common experience. God is always listening. We have to press through it and continuing to pray. We have to trust that God is working even if we don’t see it.

Something I just came across on this subject is that we should consider changing things up with the way we are praying. Some suggest journaling - writing down our prayers. Others say to change HOW we pray. Sometimes we get stuck in the way we are praying.

One thing that I was reminded while writing this blog is that prayer is not about getting results but communication with God. No, He doesn’t answer in a way that we can hear with our physical ears but He communicates in other ways but only if we commit the time to spend with Him. In our fast paced world we want things immediately without spending much time.

God may not decide to answer our prayers like we want Him to, but He will answer them. The good thing about praying is knowing we are doing everything we can do. We need to let that give us comfort and continue to pray.