Faith and Doubt

in a Culture of Disbelief

  • Home
  • About
  • Milestones
  • Contact

Our Plans, God’s Plan

February 9, 2022 3 Comments

Share this post:

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Email
Photo credit: Ryoji Iwata

One morning last spring, I chauffeured my wife Beth to a place where she would spend the day marinating in chemicals. I watched her pause and look back before she closed the car door. “This is just where we are,” she said.  “You’re dropping me off for a chemotherapy appointment.” It felt like something other people did (older people), or like some scene from a movie (cue light rain).

That same morning I noticed a card on her desk. It said, “I know what to do when life gives you lemons, but what about Brussels sprouts?”  Actually, she loves Brussels sprouts. To me they are little green pine cones that stink when steamed. I can’t imagine squeezing them. So I caught the irony.

When life does smell up the kitchen, people can become far more acerbic than that card.  For example, “Does God even notice what’s happening here?”   Some questions help sort things out better than others.  But to get to a good question, sometimes we just need permission to ask.  

Permission to ask

A question can be a complaint with alternate punctuation.  Sometimes it’s just to protest how the universe is being run. Bitter questions seek to bulldoze meaning and accountability with it. Those questions seek autonomy, not answers. Even so, asking is a form of confession, an admission about what’s already bubbling under the surface.

What part of God’s plan is suffering?  We can’t always know the value of a valley when we’re in it; life is lived forwards and better understood backwards. But meanwhile we might wonder, “Is it okay to wonder?” Answer: Yes. Dozens of Psalms demonstrate permission to ask.

“Great faith is the product of great fights,” Smith Wigglesworth said. Anyone who fights has expectations. They sense the world is a little off its axis. Something has told them life is not fair and look to some high court. Where did they get this idea life is supposed to be fair? It is a kind of revelation to believe things should be a certain way. Notice that word belief? Great fights can lead to great faith.

A bigger frame for a picture of suffering

One of the wisest men I know (well, I don’t know him personally) wrote one of the most artful and celebrated letters of all time.  In it he said this:  “All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Paul, in his letter to the Roman church).

I take heart in the fact that Paul doesn’t say “all things are good.”  A faithful response to cancer or any uncertainty is neither a stiff upper lip nor a glib optimism.  In other words, faith is not wishful thinking about life beyond our circumstances but a posture of trust in the midst of them. True faith during difficulty is not a bible-quoting version of denial.  Faith with any integrity can be both sorrowful and hopeful.

Everyone suffers—some more than others.  Even the one man who lived without sin lived with suffering.  If we are willing, suffering can become a wake up call from smugness, from illusions of independence.  It can jolt us awake to a life no longer centered on self.  

Job flings one riddle at God, God flings back at Job a hundred riddles, and Job is at peace. He is comforted with conundrums.”

G.K. Chesterton

Thoughts, feelings, actions

Sometimes we must embrace the fact that a God who is bigger than the boogieman is going to know a lot more than we possibly can from our time-bound, limited view.  This is called good theology.  It helps us face reality, and in that honesty, to ask better questions, like– 

How can I greet this day with hope and yet authenticity?

How might my that authenticity connect with someone living without hope today?

Am I ready to trust a sovereign God acquainted with the grief of a broken world?

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. -Isaiah 53:3

Related

Filed Under: Tough stuff

Subscribe to Faith and Doubt

Subscribe to Faith and Doubt today and receive a free copy of Milestones.

Comments

  1. Debbie Quinton says

    February 10, 2022 at 10:44 AM

    So true, and, yes, I remember that card:)

  2. Clifford W Foreman says

    February 10, 2022 at 12:29 PM

    Even the folks from Brussels have problems with their sprouts. When life gives you brussels sprouts. look for a good recipe online. I’ve always liked the double ending in Job. First he repents (40:3-5); then he reconnects with God emotionally (42:1-6).

  3. Kay Stoutt says

    February 10, 2022 at 3:03 PM

    Good Column!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Who is Behind Faith and Doubt?

Tim FilstonTriplets+1 Dad. Smokies trout stalker. Spandex warrior. Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.
More about Tim.

FacebookLinkedInTwitter

Get updates from Faith and Doubt by email!


Subscribe to Faith and Doubt today and receive a free copy of Milestones.

Main Topics

  • Personal Growth
  • Relationships
  • Leadership
  • News & Culture
  • Tough Questions
  • Great Reads

Latest Tweets

  • Great research on GenZ and distrust of institutions by @WeAreSpringtide. @EPChurch

    June 23, 2022 4:47 PM

  • What is Juneteenth? Read here: buff.ly/3kpZRWr

    June 19, 2022 11:15 AM

  • Bad week? Maybe you could use a couple magic words... www.faithanddoubt.com/personal…

    June 17, 2022 11:54 AM

Facebook

Facebook

RSS Featured Links

  • Finding Rest for Your Soul
  • Breaking Bread with Calvin and His ‘Institutes’
  • How Social Media Use Can Rival God
  • Gospel Light in the Red Light District
  • When the Mob Shows Up the Monday After Roe

Latest Tweets

  • Great research on GenZ and distrust of institutions by @WeAreSpringtide. @EPChurch

    June 23, 2022 4:47 PM

  • What is Juneteenth? Read here: buff.ly/3kpZRWr

    June 19, 2022 11:15 AM

RSS Leadership tips from Tony Morgan

Recent Posts

  • “Just Because.” Magic words.
  • How to win people, not just arguments
  • Earning the right to be heard

all content © 2022 by Tim Filston | Design by Robin Cornett