I write this post as I think of two specific friends who have had their lives touched by tragedy. One was direct and the other slightly indirect. But both of them definitely saw life in its rawest form very recently. This goes out to them and to anyone else who has suffered and feels like he or she is full of questions without any answers. Here goes ...
Why do babies die? Why would God let a couple experience that extreme joy of life only to have it ripped away almost immediately? I don't care how many times I've heard about it happening, the questions still come and the silence in terms of answers is deafening. People come up with the stupidest things to say, though I'm sure they mean well. But I have yet to hear an answer that satisfies.
And what about the other end of life? What about the slow, painful suffering of a parent who is in steady decline for what seems like forever? How is that ever, as Paul told the Romans, a "good thing" for any of us? I've experienced that one close at hand (some of you know why I write this blog in the first place) and the answers still evade me while the questions pile up.
I think perhaps I'm over-thinking this and I'm quite certain I want to over-simplify it. The raw truth is that I don't get to decide or demand answers to "life's hard questions". In a world where God allows choice and free will, evil will play its part and death and decay (albeit temporary) still looks like it has the upper hand. The only "answer" I can possibly accept is that it hurts God too because he designed us and all we see for so much more. In the end, that has to be enough to get me to stand up, take a deep breath and move forward even when it hurts.
The Crooked Path will raise many questions before it winds to its final destination. Answers may or may not come and those I find may not prove satisfactory in the temporal sense. My only real job is to trust the One who watches the path and know that he loves me intensely, even when it hurts to ask and not hear the answer I want. I really want that to be "enough" for me ... I'm committed to that being enough.
