Category: Character

My oldest daughter, Jessika, has a penchant for asking questions. As a little girl (almost from the time she could talk), as soon as I said something, she would ask “Why?” She wasn’t trying to be difficult; she genuinely wanted to know. So I would formulate the most thorough answer I thought possible for a two/three-year old to understand. Again, she would respond, “Why?” The older she got, the longer these sessions lasted. She had an insatiable desire to deeply understand her world. Of course, there were occasions that it was not possible to have an extended conversation.

Sometimes I had to say, “I don’t have time to talk about this right now. You just need to trust me.”

Today as a grown woman with girls of her own, Jessika’s questions are much more complex, and she continues to investigate beneath the surface, seeking to understand the “Whys.”

Asking “Why” can be powerful, leading to discovery and understanding. Our eyes may be open to see the bigger picture more clearly. As we search the Scriptures and seek God in prayer, we learn to know and love Him more. However, there are times when asking “Why” does not satisfy and the answers we receive are simply not enough.

We may never know why.
 Life can be hard. Life doesn’t always make sense. Amid beauty and joy, there are also unexpected tragedy and crisis, illness, financial set back, and broken relationships. Hardship often leads us to desperately ask, “Why?” God is never offended by our sincere questions. He promises to give us His peace, comfort, and strength. However, He never promises to give us answers.

Hebrews 11 commends the men and women who lived by courageous faith and received God’s promises. It also commends the ones that endured tremendous hardships and suffering. “All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us” (vs. 39-40, NLT). They continued to live faithfully for the Lord without knowing the reasons for their difficulties or seeing the end results of God’s promises.

Job lost everything and suffered intensely. God appeared to him and revealed His glory, but He never explained Himself. Job was restored and blessed, but he was never given the back story that we can read in the first two chapters of Job.

I wrestled for months, even years, asking “Why” my youngest daughter was born with Spina Bifida. One day when she was about two years old and had just experienced a series of medical difficulties, I called out to the Lord, desperate for answers. He gently directed me to Psalm 139:13-16.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
 Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
 Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed (NLT).

God spoke to my heart, “This Word is true for your daughter. I was not looking away when she was being formed. I oversaw every detail.” That day my questions were not answered, but they were settled.

Jesus is always enough.
There are many reasons we may suffer. Perhaps it’s the consequences of our own choices. Maybe it’s the result of others’ sinful and selfish actions. Or we may suffer because we live in a broken world fallen from God’s original perfect design. It might be a spiritual attack. Regardless of the reasons, knowing the “Why” does not take away our pain.

In John chapter 9, Jesus passed a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him “Why?” Then they offered their best guesses, “Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” (vs. 2).
“It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him” (vs. 3).

The man was born blind and had lived in darkness his entire life, all to demonstrate God’s glory. That was the answer, the one directly from Jesus. But, what did that mean? The disciples could have kept asking questions. In that moment, though, even with the best answer, the man was still blind.

But Jesus didn’t leave him there.

Jesus touched the man and healed him. Jesus opened the man’s physical eyes and he could see all the images that had for decades been hidden from view. Jesus opened the man’s spiritual eyes and he could clearly see the Light of the World and worshiped Him.

In that moment, there were no more questions. He had found the answers in Jesus Christ.

Life is rarely neat and tidy. We may never receive an satisfactory answer to our soul-searching questions this side of heaven. However, we can find God at the heart of every unanswered questions, and He can absolutely be trusted.

In the midst of all our challenges, all our heartaches, and all our questions (whether answered or not), the loving, healing presence of Jesus will always, always be enough.

We will thrive in life and leadership when we rest in Him.