Update: April 6, 2017
I have been devoting recent posts to exploring my relationship with the Almighty. I revisited this from 4 years ago and a few short months after my baby died.
His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”
A few weeks ago my mom was talking to a woman who lost her child about a year ago. The woman said, “I’m still so angry with God. Isn’t your daughter mad at him?”
This idea keeps popping up. I keep hearing things like:
- Why did God do this?
- Why did God let this happen?
- God could have stopped this if he wanted to?
- This isn’t fair?
- If God loved me he wouldn’t do this to me.
But these feelings aren’t limited to those of us who have experienced death. The loss of a job, marriage, house, abuse or about a thousand other bad things that happen to us leave us blaming God. Before we blame God, there are some really important truths we have to consider.
Death is our fault.
Sin, death and all the damage that comes with it was ushered into the world, not by God, but by humanity. God didn’t want it this way. God tried to protect us from all of this. But we just wouldn’t listen. If you have never read the story of the beginning, now would be good time check out Genesis 1-3.
God never wanted us to experience death, tragedy, suffering or loss. God created us for a beautiful fellowship with him. After he created Adam and Eve in the garden he said it all in a few simple words, “It was very good.”
But all these centuries later most of us wouldn’t describe life on earth as “very good.” We describe our existence as everything from dismal, stressful, painful, lonely, sad to unsatisfying. At best we find a moment of peace in the chaos. Why?
When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Rom. 5:12
Why is our first inclination as humans to get mad at God for something we did?
We sinned. We brought all this trouble on ourselves. In the parenting world I think we call it “natural consequences.”
Now, if I’m God and I told the people I just created what to do and they couldn’t listen to one simple “DO NOT TOUCH” warning, I’m pretty sure I would say, “You deserve what’s coming to you.” I’m pretty sure that my predetermined plan wouldn’t have been to fix it.
Lucky for you, I’m not God.
He didn’t just say he’d help us fix the symptoms of our sin. He didn’t just say that he’d ease the burden we carry. He said, “I will carry it for you.”
The God I serve doesn’t do things to me. The God I serve does it with me. He doesn’t watch me suffer from his place on high. He dwells in the pit of the grave carrying me, carrying my grief, carrying my sorrow. He doesn’t just take my pain, he takes away the source of my pain. He takes my sin and offers healing and forgiveness in its place. That is colossal.
Soak this in for a moment:
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. Is. 53:4-5
We can blame God for the things that are our fault. Or we can surrender our anger and realize he suffered a great deal more to fix our mess. In place of death and its sorrow God will make us whole and healed.
For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. 2 Cor. 7:10
