The world we live
in can be a scary place. Even in our short lifetimes we’ve seen an
overwhelming, and seemingly unfair, amount of pain and suffering. We’ve seen
presidents abuse power in the White House, we’ve seen thousands die in
terrorist attacks, we’ve sent friends and family off to war, we’ve watched
innocent people suffer and die at the hands of somebody who was just looking
for a thrill. Closer to home we’ve watched a bullied classmate pass away, we’ve
been sexually abused by men who sought to control us with fear, and we’ve seen
our parents lose their jobs because somebody in power didn’t like them. How, in the face of all that, are we
supposed to believe God even exists, let alone trust him to care for us in
times of need? It’s a big question, one I’ve struggled with myself, and I would
love to walk through it with you.
When we were
little we were taught “Jesus loves me this I know” and “God is bigger than the
boogie man, he’s bigger than Godzilla, or the monsters on TV” and it all seemed
so simple. The scary stuff was there, but it was no big deal because we had
God, the celestial bodyguard, checking in our closets and under our beds so we
didn’t have to worry about it. In the words of my youth pastor, we had our
“heaven belts on.” Back then our biggest worry was that we scraped our knee
when Timmy pushed us off the slide but God “sent” us a Band-Aid and it was all
better. It wasn’t until we got older
that things started getting complicated. Parents got divorced, rumors started,
friends crossed to the other side of the hallway and refused to be seen
associating with you because to do so would be social suicide. When our worlds
started falling apart around us it became a lot harder to believe that “Jesus
loves me” regardless that “the bible tells me so.” Suddenly those people that
said there was no God, or at least not one that cared about us, started making
a lot more sense.
We used to hear
sermons on John 10 and Psalm 23 talking about God as a “good shepherd.” One who
would lay down his life for his sheep, care for them, make them lie down by
still waters and lead them to fields of green grass. He would protect them from
danger, provide for their needs, and lovingly seek after them when they strayed
away. We could probably give a sermon on that analogy ourselves, from memory,
based off the sheer repetition we were exposed to in our youth. So how do we
reconcile that story with the world
we’re in now? Where is our protection from the wolves attacking our country?
Where are the streams of water and fields of grass for those starving in
poverty on our city streets? Who is seeking out those who have lost everything
in natural disasters to bring them home?
These days there
are a lot of things we’re running short on. Time, money, food, living space,
even love, you name it there seems to be a deficit. Nobody would claim a shortage of evil though. At first
glance pain, anger, and loss seem to be the currency of the day. It’s not hard
to understand why people frequently point at the evil in our world and say,
“Surely your good, loving, all-powerful God is nothing but a fairy tale!” I’ve
even thought that myself a time or two to be completely honest. The more I’ve
thought about the problem of evil though, the more I’ve come to see it as more
of a proof for a loving and powerful God rather than against him.
I recently heard a
sermon on Acts 16, which tells the story of Paul and Silas in prison. They were
preaching the “good news” and came across a slave girl who was possessed by a
demon. The demon allowed her to tell the future, which provided a very
lucrative business for her masters. Paul, knowing what was best for the girl,
cast out the demon and healed her, much to the dismay of her masters who
promptly incited a riot to have the men imprisoned. Paul and Silas were
brutally beaten and cast into the most secure part of the prison under heavy
guard. That’s a lot of evil and unfair treatment to befall two men, for doing a
good deed! They were doing the work of the Lord and look what happened to them!
Instead of lamenting their position or fighting back, the men prayed and sang
hymns. Unbelievable! In the middle of the night though, God sent an earthquake
that opened the prison doors and loosed the chains that bound not only Paul and
Silas, but all the prisoners.
Finally, justice was served! Not only that, but the prison guard, seeing all
the doors opened, prepared to kill himself as duty required. Paul and Silas
stopped him though, telling him that no one had left the prison. In response,
the jailer cared for the men and he, and his entire family, were saved. No one
would deny that tremendous evil was at work at the beginning of this story, but
God redeemed it into something beautiful in the end.
So often we get caught
up staring at the evil all around us and we don’t take the time to stop and
think that God might still be working in all of this. God created humans with
free will because of his immense love for us and his desire for us to love him
back. If we had no option but to love him that would not be real love at all,
granting us free will was necessary to allow us to be in relationship with God.
With free will, though, comes the ability to choose and therefore, to choose
wrongly. Free will opens the door to evil. In order to do away with evil, God
would have to revoke our free will, which would be outside of his love for us
right now. Instead God overcomes evil by redeeming it, and adapting it to serve
his purposes as we see in the Paul and Silas story. We don’t have to fear evil
in this world because we know that God is ultimately in control of the outcome,
in essence, he really is bigger than the boogieman. Veggie tales was right!
We can also have
hope for the future. Just because God hasn’t defeated evil yet does not mean he won’t.
The bible makes it very clear, especially in Revelation that God wins. End of
story. Satan, and evil, has no authority over the kingdom of God. God has not
left us without hope.
Last summer I ended up on a 4-hour car ride with only a 28 year-old ex-felon to keep me
company. This man was a former drug addict and had been imprisoned for car
theft and physically abusing another human being, and that was the abbreviated
version of his criminal record. I could have been terrified and fearing for my
safety that whole ride, but instead I was enraptured by his story. Here this
man was, telling me the story of his near death in drug overdose, his failed
engagement due to alcoholism, his 8 year-old daughter he wasn’t allowed to see,
and his year long imprisonment and he was able to rejoice because he was able
to look back and see how God used all of it to pick him up off the wayward
trail he was taking and push him in the direction he was going now. We were in
the car driving up to HoneyRock where he would be participating in an
orientation program before attending Wheaton College as a Colson Scholar,
sharing testimonies and sitting in awe of God’s amazing power and he said
something I’ll never forget. He said, “Keri, if I had gone through all of that
just so that I could come to this time of sitting in this car being wowed by
God, it would have been worth it.” Evil isn’t the end of the story, God’s glory
is.
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