Have you and friends ever participated in a team trivia night out? While living in Kentucky, we had a group we would play with every Thursday. It was so much fun and often we found ourselves becoming quite competitive in an effort to win.
It is all fun until your team gets tripped up by a tricky question. Which state produces the most peaches? Or your team gets stumped by a difficult question. What is the only country named after a woman? What is the longest word in the English language that contains just one vowel?
While these questions may cost us a trivia victory…..give us pause…..make us think a bit……the answers are attainable with the proper google search.
However, sometimes life brings more difficult questions. “Why would God take someone so young?” “How can a family bury a second son?” “How could she be so sick and yet her body showed no symptoms?” “Why do these things happen?” The answers to these questions are not so easy to explain or grasp. The answers are certainly not evident, simple or concise.
These are the type of questions we wrestle with when grieving or walking through a difficult time in our lives. We want reasoning to prevail; for everything to make sense; to understand why things happen; to be able to explain the “why’s”; to know all will be well. Such questions plaque our thoughts and test our faith.
I certainly do not have the answers and, honestly, I have questions of my own. God’s thoughts and God’s ways are so far beyond our own that, while earthside, we may never understand the why’s. However, as believers, it is in uncertain times we must fully rely on our faith and hold onto what we do know. All we can do to reconcile these questions is place all trust in our Heavenly Father and His sovereignty.
As believers, we know we are loved beyond anything we can imagine. But do we remember or believe that God is always working all things for our good? Even those things which seemingly hold only heartache, God…..somehow….constantly…..consistently……is working to bring good from every situation.
“His Glory and My Good” is a song on my playlist. I particularly love the lines: “So in faith, I follow Jesus on the road not understood, for I know that He is working for His glory and my good.” I may sing those lines through tears……..but that truth is what sees me through.
While at trivia, our team would put our heads together, talk through the options and then confidently submit our answer with conviction and certainty. My prayer is each of us will bow our heads, talk with God about our questions and fears, and then have that same conviction and certainty regarding His reassurances and our beliefs.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9
