Sacred Cynicism

It seems like I am destined to meet the same types of people again and again. For some reason I tend to meet people who are struggling in life with a deep disappointment with God. There is usually some pain, hurt or loss that serves as a catalyst for their current struggles – maybe a death of a child, or the loss of a sibling or spouse way too young. “Why would God do such a thing to my friend?” Instead of this maybe they wonder, “why did God allow that to happen to my child?” Over time, bitterness and anger have built up until a great gulf exists between them and God. Numb from the searing pain of their loss, the relationship they once had with Christ has now hardened from the intensity of their grief.

Many people do reach for whatever comfort they can find early in their response to their loss. In this sensitive time some well-meaning people say things that make the pain, and the problem worse. Phrases like, “it is God’s will,” or “God wanted to take them home” only intensify the pain. Both of these phrases, and countless others like, often unintentionally communicate a very powerful message about God. He planned for this event to happen. And so God becomes responsible for the hurt and the pain we bear.

Here is the question that lies at the base of many of our questions, does God control or know the future? The quick and easy answer is, of course He does. He knows everything. But if God knows everything, including the future, and if God is all powerful, then God is responsible for the innocent who suffer. That is the logical conclusion to this conundrum, and the conclusion that many who suffer inevitably reach at some point. We can surely pat these people on the back, give them a hug, and say just trust God. But isn’t this the same God who just watched over the loss of my friend, my sibling, my child? This is the problem of evil, and how do we navigate our way through these problems? Like many other things, when I am faced with difficult issues, I often turn to Scripture. When I turn to Scripture I often find surprising answers to my questions, including this one.

From the earliest pages of Scripture there is revealed a God who seems to not know the future for certain. In Genesis 3 God walks through the garden calling out “where are you” to His creation. In Genesis 18:20-21 God tells Abraham that He is sending messengers to see if what He has heard in Sodom and Gomorrah is actually true. In Jeremiah 18 God seems to set out two possible results, but not have any knowledge of what Israel will choose. In Jonah God promises destruction on Ninevah in no uncertain terms, only to relent when Ninevah changed their ways. These are only a few of the many places where God seems to walk into the unclear future with His people, not push them into a determined future.

Wouldn’t this make sense? After all, what does free will mean anyway? How can we say that God created humanity with free will, and say at the same time that God determines outcomes, and plans for each facet of human choice and behavior? The short answer is, we cannot. Free will has consequences. If God knows with certainty any outcome, then how can we say there is such thing as free will, since there are hundreds, if not millions of freely chosen behaviors that determine any outcome? If humanity truly has the capacity for freely chosen decisions, then perhaps God has not determined my outcome. Perhaps God did not choose for my friend to die at 19, maybe it was the decision of a man to drink and get behind the wheel of a car. Maybe God was trying to stop the behavior of that driver, but the driver wanted his drink more than he wanted to listen to God. Perhaps much of the pain I experience is a result not of God’s plan, but of a creation in rebellion against its Maker. Why should I think of them, when I want to do this? Why should I take care about the result of this industrial waste, when I can just bury it and earn more profit. After all, it probably won’t leach into the wells of that neighborhood.

How many things do we do as a creation that ignores its Creator? As I look around that behavior seems to be the rule, not the exception, and these decisions exact a cost from all of us. Why doesn’t God step in and stop bad things from happening? Well, maybe it is because that in order to do that God would have to step in and stop our free will. In exchange for a promise of no evil, we have to give up our ability to choose the evil, as well as our ability to choose the good. I am not sure that is a deal we wish to make. But let’s get back to God here.

Sometimes in conversations with people about this, I get a common reaction. People often say, “so maybe God has limited Himself when He gave humanity free will.” If there is free will than God has limited His knowledge of the future. My first response is to say, “Yes, that is exactly what we are talking about.” Yet there is something about this answer that now bothers me. If my response is true, then I am saying if God had created a creation that could not rebel, could not make bad decisions, and had to follow a pre-determined path, then somehow God would be more, be greater than a God that allows free will. That almost sounds silly if you say it out loud. Surely that cannot be what we mean.

Let’s turn our thinking around here for a minute. If God does determine everything ahead of time, if God has a specific outcome already planned for you, if each and every decision is already known, what would that say about God? It seems to me I would be describing a God that has severely limited Himself. It is a God that would not offer grace, not know unconditional love, and never know the joy of a freely chosen relationship. God would only experience the automatic response of one who could have done none other. It is a God who would have never sacrificed for a stranger, only for those who had a fore-ordained relationship. Now that is a limiting God.

So how does this help our pain? Well, it helps to know that God did not plan it, and weeps with us when loss strikes. (John 10:35) It helps to know that God decided to walk through the suffering with us, and came to Earth to die on a Roman cross. And it absolutely helps to know that His death was not the end, so my loss need not be the final chapter in any tragedy. And it helps to know that no one I know has a pre-determined outcome, all are drawn and called by His grace, my friend, my neighbor, even the man that killed my 19 year old friend. This may not be the perfect answer, but it is certainly not limiting.