Frederich W. Schmidt Jr writes, the Lamentation Psalms in the bible do three things:
´They give us permission to ask our own questions about suffering. They model the capacity to ask questions we might otherwise suppress, but can never escape. And they model how those questions might be asked without fear of compromising our relationship with God or with other people.´
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Did you know that it’s OK to question God and to feel perplexed at the way your life is going?
Did you know that it’s perfectly acceptable to God to have other than positive feelings concerning how your life is unfolding?
Did you know that it’s normal not to want to accept the tragedies, major and minor, that come your way?
Did you know that it’s no sin to ask God why? It’s no sin to want to get out from under the crosses that come our way. And we’ve all had our fair share of cross carrying, have we not?
It was my turn to ask God why. And do you know what I discovered? I discovered that the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is full of people who had asked God why.
Let’s take Abram, for example. In the fifteenth chapter of Genesis we find Abram wanting answers to questions that I’m sure had been troubling him for a long time. The first question is found in verses 1-3:
“After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.’ But Abram said, ‘O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? . . . You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.’”*
Now, I don’t know about you, but I think Abram showed a great deal of courage in answering God as he did. Sure, he started out very diplomatically, very politely, in verse 1, where he addressed God as “Sovereign Lord”; but then in verse 3 he drops the polite diplomatic routine completely. He basically points a finger in God’s face and attempts to hold God accountable for his lack of offspring.
Abram didn’t see where his “great reward” lay. All he knew was that he was an old man and he didn’t have any children. You see, in Abram’s day there were no company retirement benefits, no IRAs, no Social Security benefits. You worked as long as you could; then it was the responsibility of your children to see to your needs. If you had no children to support you, your future in the latter years of life was grim at best.
So God grew angry at Abram’s attitude of frustration and the idea that he would dare question Him, the Al-mighty One, right? Did God confront Abram and say, “How dare you doubt Me, you little man? You will pay for your lack of faith!”
No, quite the opposite happened. God took Abram aside and made the promise found in verses 4 and 5: “Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” Apparently this was enough to satisfy Abram.
Now something interesting happens—God makes Abram yet another promise, and again Abram immediately asks God for assurance that this promise will be honored. Now, I admit, at first glance it may appear that Abram was pushing his luck just a little bit. Maybe he thought he was on a roll. Then again, maybe Abram had grown from that first confrontation he had had with God concerning the issue of being an old man with no children.
I think that Abram learned two things in that first encounter: First, I think that he learned that to keep feelings of frustration and unmet expectations pent up inside only causes one to lash out eventually, even if the person at whom we’re lashing out is God.
And second, because of the calm, attentive, nonjudgmental way that God dealt with him, Abram learned that he could really and truly trust God enough to ask the hard questions in life—questions that might even reflect doubt and distrust.
So what was God’s response to Abram’s newfound boldness? Verses 9-21 of Genesis 15 tell us that Abram was instructed to cut in two a young cow, a ram, and a goat. After falling asleep, Abram had a vision of a firepot and a torch passing between the halved animals as God pledged to give the land from the “river of Egypt to the . . . Euphrates” (verse 18).
Sounds like something you would hear about the day after Halloween, doesn’t it? “Chopped-up animals found in local pasture—suspect says it was part of a covenant with God. The unidentified man is currently awaiting trial pending psychological assessment.”
In reality, Abram knew exactly what the seemingly bizarre ceremony meant. In his day and in his culture it was a fairly common way of entering into a contract with someone. However, the catch in this type of contract is that it carries the death sentence to anyone who breaks it. God was telling Abram that the Creator of the universe will give up His own life if He breaks the deal.
Can you see how far their relationship had progressed just over one question that Abram finally ventured to ask? I bet he wished that he had asked the tough questions a long time ago! Their relationship went from suspicion, to communication, to trust, to a pledge of life and limb if the relationship were to ever go bad, and all of this began with the question “Why?”
He Showed Us How
We can think of many other people in the Bible who had questions. We can talk about the answers they received. But how can we fail to point to the One who is our example in all things? Christ is our example, especially when it comes to our relationship to our fellow human beings and to God. And when it came time to ask God the tough questions, He showed us how. And with the tough questions He showed us that sometimes there are tough answers.
When He was faced with His own death, He showed us that it’s OK to be apprehensive, that it’s OK to have feelings of fear. He showed us that it’s normal to want to find a way of avoiding the trials and tribulations that come our way. Three times in the Garden of Gethsemane He asked whether there might be another way to accomplish His mission. Three times the answer was no. But that in no way shattered His trust in God.
Jesus even trusted His heavenly Father when the answer to His “Why?” question (as in “Why, O God, have you forsaken me?”) was a silent one. Christ died without receiving an answer to the most heart-wrenching question ever asked. And just as He died without having an answer to His most pressing question, we have to be prepared to do the same, realizing, though, that God is always beside us, and oftentimes carrying us, just as He was with Jesus.
And as in the case of Christ, the answer to many of our questions may not come until after our resurrection, when God has set aside 1,000 years for us to ask our questions one on one and face to face with Him.
In Retrospect
Looking back on my life, I can see that the events I described to you concerning the car wreck, the broken engagement, and a cash shortage are minor inconveniences, compared with what many others have experienced. Such as my friend who died at age 34 of breast cancer, leaving behind four children, two of whom were in diapers. While working as a chaplain in a suburban Chicago hospital, I watched a 17-year-old girl die of cancer, and a 6-month-old infant die of SIDS. Then there was the murder of a 32-year-old mother whose boyfriend had decided that if he couldn’t have her, no one else could either.
These kinds of tragedy demand that good people ask why. And far from being a sin, asking why is, I believe, what God expects from us. For if we do not ask why in the face of tragedy and injustice, we run the risk, as did Abram, of wrongly implicating God in matters of death, disease, and suffering.
And if there’s no apparent answer to our question, as there was none to Christ’s as He hung on the cross, then I find comfort in the fact that God is not in the business of handing out crosses. Rather, He is in the business of helping us carry them, weeping with us every step of the way.
