Kids have a lot of questions. The “why” questions I've found is most popular. Back in Boise I work for the YMCA as an after school child care worker. Needless to say, when it's you and 2 other adults with 35+ kids a lot of “why” questions come up. “Why can't we do that?...well why? Why!?” This last week I simply googled “why!?” and came across a website dedicated to answering the “why” questions kids have. Here were some of my favorites:
Why does cutting onions make people cry?
Why do I need to eat vegetables?
Why are some people vegetarians?
Why does orange juice taste funny after I brush my teeth?
Why are peppers hot?
Why is a banana curved?
Why are lemons sour?
Why are oranges orange?
Why does fruit change color as it ripens?
Where does the water go when I flush the toilet?
Why can’t I waste water?
Why should I unplug appliances when I'm not using them?
Why do we need trees?
Why do bees make honey?
Why do fireflies glow?
Why do bug bites itch?
Why do ladybugs have spots?
Why are cockroaches so dirty?
Why do spiders spin webs?
Why don't worms have legs?
Why do moths eat clothes?
Why don't spiders get stuck to their own webs?
Why do some bugs have more than two eyes?
Why don't slugs have a shell?
Why do ants live in colonies?
Why do bees buzz?
Why do bees sting?
Why do lice exist?
Why do rolly pollies roll up into balls?
Why do centipedes have so many legs?
These are not uncommon questions. In fact many of these questions still plague us grown-ups. The truth is, though, these aren't the only questions that our children are asking now. I'm noticing this trend of our society killing the innocence of children earlier and earlier. Kids are now having to ask, “Why did mommy go? Why did daddy leave? Why couldn't I be good enough for them to stay? Why am I not loved?” As they grow up those questions grow. “Why do people say I need God? Why do those church people hate me?” Pretty soon we find ourselves asked the question that always seems to get us. “Why, if there's so much pain and suffering in this world, does God not do anything. Why do you believe in a heartless God who watches in all His glory, children being mutilated, families being torn apart, countries being torn to pieces by war? Why?”
That question seems to have plagued all of us at one point or another. Why do you believe in a God that allows so much awful stuff to happen? Why questions can be so innocent and cute. At the same time we know there's dying people in the streets asking the serious why questions. What do we say to them?
I've heard horror stories of how Christians have answered this question. For instance. Someone is going through an absolutely terrible situation. We quote Mark 4 where Jesus calms the storm and we tell them, “See, if you just had some faith and asked Jesus to calm your storm, He would. You just need to ask Him and He'll take away your storm.” And when that doesn't happen people lose faith altogether; They give up on God because they feel He's given up on them.
We have to be extremely careful when answering this question. We can't say more than what scripture says; believe me, the Bible answers these questions. We do have to keep in mind that we will meet people who will flat out reject these answers. All we can hope to do is help. If they reject it we can pray that a seed was planted.
Turn to James 1 which is page 854 in your pew Bibles. While you're turning there let me give a little bit of a background on the book of James. James was most likely written by James, the brother of Jesus. The book is kind of the Proverbs of the New Testament. It's known as Wisdom literature. There's a lot more to be said about the book of James and I would encourage you to study the background of Bible books. It really helps make the meaning behind them more clear and more real.
We're going to read verses 2-8. James knew the people he was writing to were going to be facing some pretty difficult times so he offers up this wisdom. (READ) (brothers AND sisters). Joy? JOY? How can anyone tell me to have joy in this? Let me say this, joy and happiness are not the same. Happiness is temporary. You want to be happy, go get a Happy meal. Joy is something that lasts. For instance, I've heard that raising kids is a joyful experience. Now before I lose all you parents out there, allow me to explain. You put hundreds of thousands of dollars into raising these creatures. You try and teach them right. You give them your full attention and love. However, you don't tend to get much in return. Here's a monologue that really describes the joy of parenthood. It's from a show called 8 simple rules. In the show the father, who was a writer for a newspaper, had recently died. They found his last article and this is how it read,
[reading Paul's last article] Okay readers, today we're having a little pop quiz, it's multiple choice, so sharpen your number 2 pencils and put your thinking caps on. Ready? Here's a quote: "Dad, you're an idiot." Now, contestants, this was said to me because of which of the following transgressions? A: Coming to the breakfast table wearing pajamas and black socks? B: Asking my oldest daughter if that guy I saw her talking to yesterday at school was her boyfriend? C: Referring to rapper Fiddy Cent as "Fifty Cents"? or D: Entering the room? Okay, pencils down. Actually it was a trick question. The answer is all of the above. Now do you know how many times I called my father an idiot? Zero. Why? Because I feared him. Back then we didn't share our deep personal feelings, our deepest conversations usually revolved around the tigers bull pen. But my kids, I can't get them to shut up! There's not a feeling that my kids are afraid to express over and over and over. And my wife reassures me this is a good thing over and over and over, and she's always right. So do I wish that my kids feared me? Well my house would be quieter, and I'd spend a lot less time in the bathroom, but no. Because I know that whenever they insult me whether it's a "You're an idiot," "You're a geek," or an "I hate you," an "I love you" isn't far behind. And it's the knowledge that my wife and kids love me that makes it safe for me to wear pajamas and black socks to the breakfast table.
Joy isn't smiling and being happy all the time. Joy is taking reassurance in the good that is in any situation. So what is the good in the bad situations? James gives an answer as we continue. (READ vv. 3-4). For us Christians the good in bad times is knowing that any of these horrible experiences we go through are to help mature us and bring us that much closer to not lacking anything.
In those times it's really easy to not now what to do. But James tells us to ask for wisdom so we can get through these things easier. (READ vv.5-8). Notice that all this verse promises is wisdom. I've heard this verse used way out of context. See! All you have to do is ask God and not doubt and you'll get it. Whether it's a certain item or a desired outcome of your situation, if you ask without doubting you'll get it. But that's not what this verse promises. Here's the truth, God never once promises an easy life for Christians. All He can promise us is that He's always there for us. If we need guidance in hard times, then yes, we need to ask for that wisdom without doubting. God can give you that wisdom if you truly believe it. It may not cure your situation though. I mentioned the Mark 4 passage earlier. That passage isn't about calming the storms in people's lives, it's about the awesome power of Jesus. It's about how He's always there through the hard times. He may decide to calm your situation, or He might not. But when you go through difficult times, keep in mind that he is working out the best in that situation for you. He is always there for you.
However, this begs the question, well why do bad things happen to good people. Why do bad things happen to children? There's an article I found online that I feel sums up this question quite well. These are excerpts from 2 different articles that are both asking this same question:
The first thing to understand is that evil came into the world because of sin. God didn’t create things this way. Adam and Eve had been given authority over Earth, and as a consequence of their sin they lost control of Earth to Satan. Since then Satan’s been running things here. 1 John 5:19 says, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”
When Satan took over, the world became infested with all kinds of evil including sickness and disease that afflict both good and bad people, although the Bible does say that there’s only One who is good, and that’s God. (Matt. 19:17). We’re all sinners and therefore all subject to the evil that abounds here. And let’s remember that God’s definition of good begins with accepting the death of Jesus as payment for our sins. It doesn’t matter what “good” we’ve done otherwise, without that we’re lost.
God never promised that believers would be immune from accidents or sickness or any of the other evils of this world. He only said that we should take heart because He’s overcome the world. (John 16:33) By that He meant that we will too.
It does often look as if evil is triumphing over good, but remember that’s only what we see here in this evil place. God has promised that evil men will be punished, and even though they only live for 70-80 years here, their punishment lasts forever. So they’ve traded 70 years of evil deeds for an eternity of punishment. Believers are told to focus on the things we can’t see (eternal life) instead of the things we can (the injustice of this world). (2 Corinthians 4:18) To me that’s our biggest challenge. We can only see the things that happen around us, so we form opinions based on that.
You say “But He’s God. He can do anything He wants. He can stop this.” No He can’t, and that’s what makes Him God. He’s not just some more powerful version of us. He can’t be arbitrary or capricious like we are. He can’t relieve us of the consequences of sin in the world. He can love you enough to purchase a pardon for your sins (it took His life) but He can?t make you love Him enough to accept it. He has to be just, He has to be fair, and He has to play by the rules. These rules require Him to allow events that are not consistent with either His pleasure or His desire. When His rules are broken (we call that sin) He has to permit consequences.
Satan introduced sickness, pain, suffering and death into the creation as a consequence of that first sin. And unlike God, Satan doesn’t have to be fair so these things affect even the innocent. Because it’s no longer “politically correct” to even acknowledge Satan’s existence, the only one left to blame is God. So with a considerable assist from liberal theology, God gets all the blame, Satan gets off Scot Free, and lost people everywhere cry “Why me?” without ever getting an answer.
But God promises eternal life for those who believe, in a place where there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain. (Rev. 20:4) Following our short lives here, we get to live eternally there in days filled with happiness and joy. He hasn’t given us all the details because if we knew just how great it’s going to be then we’d be even more miserable here.
But he has said that “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor 2:9) Believers have nothing to fear in death. On the contrary we can view it as the entry way to eternal joy. Until then we can only have patience and faith. It won’t be long now.
Here's the truth. As Christians, we have hope. We know that here on Earth, as we go through tough times that God is trying to grow us in our faith. He's trying to give us the tools we need to make it through this world. But what about those who don't know Christ? Well, they don't have that hope. It is our job to bring it to them. I know that the church's theme for year is transformation. I love that theme because so many of us need or did need to be transformed. But let me ask you this..what is the point of all this if you aren't transforming people to transform others? What I mean by that is this. When someone is truly transformed they should want nothing more than to pass that on to others. It's so easy as Christians to be caught up in the regularity of things. Go to Sunday school, listen to Mark blab on for 45 min, sing a little, listen to Lance, shake a few hands and leave your faith here. It's so easy to do that because we don't truly believe all this. I know how that is, I've struggled with that. Let me reassure you, this hope we have is true. God is in control and He's doing everything he can for us. Sin and Satan are the ones who are creating this mess. Satan is the one in control of this world. He inflicts pain and suffering on the innocent. God is doing the best he can by offering hope, a way out of that mess. He loved everyone who's ever lived enough to endure a humiliating death on the cross so we could have that hope. God is stretching out begging for us to not only come to Him, but bring others to Him. God's reaching out as far as He can go, have you?
