Where was God?
Have you ever had a situation come up that made you ask God, “Where are you?” Working at a rehabilitation facility and homeless shelter as a counselor, I have heard some incredibly heart breaking stories. This past week I experienced one such story.
Lamentations 3:32-33
Though he [The LORD] brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. 33 For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.
A man stopped me in the hallway and asked if I had a few minutes I could talk with him. I said, “of course.”
Now this man had already told me in class that he did not believe in God but this program was his last option. He had been down every possible road so there was nowhere else to turn.
Well, here he sat in my office and had only one question: “Where was God all my life?” He was visibly frustrated and didn’t seem, in the moment, to actually want an answer. He simply wanted to express his disdain for a God who had not been there for him.
He then began to tell me about his aunt and uncle who had sexually abused him as a young boy and even held him down while they injected drugs into his veins with a needle. I can’t imagine the frustration, anger he must have felt for so many years.
And now he was asking me, “where was your God then!?”
How would you answer that? What would you say? He had already asked several ministers and friends who had told him that God had not done this but that man, in his free will, had. This only made him more angry at God for being able to step in and help, but limiting Himself so that he could be abused. No, this answer would give no hope or comfort. He wondered, “what about my own will to not be abused?” Why would God give others the freedom to hurt but not give him the freedom not to be.
…so we turned to the word of God…
Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[i] have been called according to his purpose.
Genesis 50:20
“And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.
I then asked him a question, assuming that the bible was true: “If this book is true and heaven is real, and it lasts forever, would it be worth it to suffer in the terrible way that you have if it meant that you would find hope, peace, rest, comfort, joy, love, and pain-free eternity?”
He thought about it and responded fairly quickly, “Yes!”
I then began to share about my little girl having anemia when she was about three. I told him that I had to hold her down and pull her arm out so that the doctor could stick a needle into her arm. She screamed and cried and it broke my heart as she would look at me with anger and say, “Why are you doing this!?” She begged me to stop it because she knew I had the power to rescue her, but instead I was holding her down so they could test her blood to see how we might correct her illness.
I asked the man sitting in my office if he thought I was bad for holding her down. He said no. He understood why I was doing it and how much it pained me, even to tears, to have to see my little girl go through this awful experience.
“What if God was looking down on you in your unbearably awful time, and hurting so badly for his child, but did so because he knew that apart from tragedy, you wouldn’t be sitting in a rehab looking for answers from His word?” I asked. “Would you be here looking for God if all had gone well in your life? Would you need Him if you had everything already?”
The man looked up, with tears in his eyes and I could see that the Holy Spirit had awakened his heart to see, not a distant Father, but one who loved him enough to do whatever it took to bring him to a faith that would give him eternal life, away from pain and suffering; that a few years of misery would be worth a billion without any tears or pain! This man now saw love where he had only known hate. He now saw a Father who wanted him home instead of a Father who drove him away. This man now had hope and purpose where there had only been despair and misery before!
As I returned to work the following day, I had three people stop me on my way to my office to ask what had happened to this man. They told me how they had seen a change and that he was going around telling everyone that his life had changed in 15 minutes.
Romans 10:17
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Do you have 15 minutes to talk? Who in your life could benefit from 15 minutes of God and His word in their lives?
Romans 10:14
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
So go share the love of God today!