What God Doesn't Do and What God Will Do

With years of life’s ups and downs comes wisdom. Wisdom births a knowingness based on observation, prayer, intuition and faith as to what God does and what God doesn’t do. As lay people, sometimes we get those two things mixed up.

As a pastor I’m frequently asked: Why would God allow this to happen? The tornadoes in central Florida this past week serve as just such an example. A news reporter asks one survivor why her house was spared, while the house on either side of her was demolished. “God just decided to bless us and allowed our things to be alright.”

While the comment might have generated a collective “ah isn’t that nice” from the viewers at home, I’m sure the neighbor’s living on either side of her, felt a bit perplexed What did God have against them? Were they bad people? Was God punishing them for that bender they went on last Saturday night — I think not. That’s not what God does.

As much as some will not want to hear it, God did not favor the Indianapolis Colts over the Chicago Bears in last week’s Super Bowl. God does not have a favorite team.

I’m sure every parent can conjure up a memory of watching their child struggle with a homework assignment. You see the pulling of hair, the tapping of the pencil even those deep sad eyes looking up at you — hoping that you’ll just cave it and give the answer. But you don’t. It’s your job to be the parent, so you allow them to struggle, hoping that they will learn the bigger lesson. Yes, you want them to get the answer, but more importantly, you want them to learn how to find their own answers. — That’s what God does.

You see God gives us free will. God inspires us to use our brain, our talents our gifts to do all the things we want Him to do for us, but because we have this “free will” we get do it all on our own.

God knows we shouldn’t build our houses on a flood zone, but we do anyway. Then the flood comes and we’re mystified that God would allow such a tragedy to happen. “God must be punishing us!” No he isn’t. God doesn’t do that.

God knows we should protect our planet. We have the brain power to eradicate carbon emissions, but our egos like those big SUVs, so we do it anyway. Then when we develop lung disease, asthma and other environmentally developed diseases we once again look to the heavens and say “God why did you allow this to happen?” God didn’t create it, we did.

God didn’t inspire car designers to build beautiful cars that can go from 0 to 60 in 20 seconds because he wanted our children to die driving them. Man did. We took that inspiration and built fast cars because we like excitement. We like the adrenalin rush – we like to have fun….We like this gift of free will — even if it can hurt us.

So we’re clear on what God doesn’t do, so what is it that God does do?

God like that dutiful parent listens with compassion when we pray; “God we do not understand why this accident has happened. There seems to be no sense in the ending of this life — please tell us why?” God does not immediately answer but. . .

God understands that we are puzzled and we are distressed as we come to understand that while we may never know “why” we at least hope and we pray: “God we know of your promise to love all your children, help us to know that your love was never withdrawn form this child that you called home.”

Then in our sorrow we see God in action, we see what God does. God’s inspired word comes to us from clergy, friends, family and others who are there to surround us with love, to help us through. We experience acts of charity in measures that we never dreamed possible. And it’s this demonstration that helps us to realize that there is nothing more powerful than God’s love for our lost child and we know that God was indeed at their side, at there time of transition, even if we couldn’t be there. That’s what God does.

While we understand that God may not give us answers, We trust that He will be there, with us, as we navigate a future without our loved one.

God owns his rightful parental role and listens as we thank Him for the good things in our life and ask forgiveness for those times when we let our loved ones down.

Our healing evolves as we watch God take what has happened and somehow weave it into some loving purpose, so that as a parent that has lost a child we gain the wisdom to know that this child has not lived or died in vain. That’s what God does.

As the sun sets tonight, we are reminded that the darkness does not represent the end, but the beginning of a new day…That’s what God does.

Tag: Rev. Jack Elliott is the Sr. Pastor of Gateway To Hope Christian Church. To reach him about this column, write him at gatewayccpastor@yahoo.com or respond to this blog.