Over All

In the information age, we want answers.  The demand for information is insatiable, and we seem to want, and in many cases can get, almost instant access to news and other details about a situation, even if the news is just beginning to break.  If facts are not forthcoming in a timely manner on a breaking news event, we begin to be suspicious that something is being hidden from the general public.  We want answers, and we want them now (or yesterday)!

In the aftermath of the attempted assassination on a former President, many demanded answers about how such a thing could have occurred.  Everyone was talking about it, and it led many to classify what happened (or didn’t happen) to Trump as a miracle.  “God spared him,” or something similar, was said by many people.  Trump himself immediately thanked God, seeming to recognize and acknowledge divine protection.  Others, usually from the opposite party, questioned this line of thinking.  The comments I saw were something like, “Beware of your theology if you believe God saved Trump but not school children in a mass shooting.” 

But these kinds of statements really only lead us to the age old question – why does God intervene in some cases, and not others?  Why do some people die, while others are healed?   Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why did God seemingly spare President Trump, but not spare the man who died at the rally? 

I’m reminded of the story where Jesus healed a man blind from birth (John 9).  His disciples asked Jesus who had sinned – the man or his parents – that he was born blind.  Jesus said neither the man nor his parents had sinned, but it happened “so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” 

Another time Jesus talked about recent tragic events involving a tower that fell and 18 people were killed.  In another case there was a massacre by Pilate of people going to worship.  He told them that the people involved in these tragedies had not committed sins that were greater than anyone else’s.  He then used it for an opportunity to admonish the ones listening to repent of their sins. We are reminded by these accounts that sometimes suffering is meant to achieve a greater purpose, for God to be glorified in someone’s life, and perhaps to even lead someone to repentance.   

When Jesus performed a miracle, it was a sign, a way for him to confirm he was who he said he was.  It benefited the recipient of the miracle, to be sure, but we have to remember that all earthly miracles will have a shelf life, because we will all eventually die. Trump was spared, but one day he will die, too.   When Corey Comperatore lost his life, as he shielded his family from those bullets, he demonstrated the greatest love that one can give, in that he laid his life down for others.  Corey’s family seems to think that sacrifice was honorable and in death he pointed others to the goodness of God.  They demonstrated, through the words they spoke following the tragedy, their understanding of the greater plan for Cory’s life and for theirs. 

My question would be to the folks warning others of misguided theology – for those who believe in God– do they believe God ever intervenes in the affairs of men?  Is he involved in our lives?   Can we accept that he does something in one life and not another?  Did Jesus heal every person he came into contact with, or was an earthly healing his plan for some, and not others?  If we believe the accounts of miracles in the Bible or have ever witnessed miracles in our lives or in the lives of others, we know that miracles do occur, and a miracle or divine intervention in someone’s life really has nothing to do with any other situation – that is God’s plan for that person, for that time.  It is not logical to think that because God does not intervene in all situations involving evil, he does not intervene in any situation.

Psalm 139:16 says that “…all of the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”  Friends, we won’t live one day longer or one day less than He planned for us before he formed us in our mother’s womb.  I believe it really boils down to God’s sovereignty, and our trust in it.  For some of us, we can only go so far in this belief.  Because if we believe in His sovereignty, we must give up ours. 

We must be satisfied with not having all the answers in the here and now, and simply say, “We trust You, in life and in death, in the now and the not yet.”

“The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all” (Psalm 103:19).