We are afraid.

I think one of the reasons we so often try to explain the suffering of others is not that we are spiritually wise, but rather, we are afraid.

Job received an answer from God - and a terrifying one at that - but never an explanation for the “why.”

God did not say:

Job, you were so righteous that I knew you could handle this kind of suffering.

He did not say:

Job, I wanted to grow your faith by allowing Satan to murder all your children and steal your health.

He did not say:

I had something better planned for you - a new set of children!

Instead, God came in the form of a storm and asked Job: Where were you when I was creating the universe? In other words, he told Job: I am God and you are not. That’s it. That’s the only response - the only reason - Job was ever given.

And when Job’s friends tried to find a reason for his pain, they ended up sinning theologically (as God’s response makes clear) and relationally, by hurting the sufferer. Don’t we often do the very same thing when we try to provide reasons and explanations that the Father hasn’t given?

But here is where the fear comes in: if we accept that we don’t understand the why’s behind our neighbor’s tragedy, it means that the same thing (or something worse) could be on the horizon for us. And that it terrifying. So, we make up reasons, patching bits and pieces of scripture together into a Hallmark card.

Instead, we ought to face the cross on which the Prince of Glory died. We might never know why _______ happened, but we know that God suffered so that we could have abundant, eternal life. So that one day, sorrow and sighing would flee away. We know that He suffered, too.

And that He didn’t have to. He chose to. And that is how much He loves us and is with us. He became sin and suffering and dying and pain for us, so that we might live.

This doesn’t cure our earthly grief. Not at all. But it brings God down to earth and places Him right beside us in our ashes and tears, in the form of Jesus Christ. He might not tell us the “why” but He gives us Himself.

Don’t be afraid to lament. Don’t be afraid to cry. Don’t be afraid to tell other Christians:

No, I don’t know why.

This does not diminish God. It does not make Him the author of evil or a wimp who has no control. It is merely an admission that we are finite and do not understand all the mysteries of God, the sorrows of this present evil age, or the purposes of The Holy Ghost. We don’t understand, but we know that He is God and that God is good.

Cover image by Mishal Ibrahim.