Three H's

Over the past several weeks at our church, a gentleman named Randy Harris has been speaking on Wednesday nights. Last week, in the context of "What in the World is God Doing", he addressed the times in which we don't understand how an all-powerful, loving God can allow really hard things to happen. Things such as cancer, Katrina, children's deaths.

I appreciated that he did not pretend to know the answers, yet did offer some helpful words:

Humility: As we see things happen, it is NOT our place to assume we understand or can presume to assign God's motives in allowing hard things to happen. It is misplaced arrogrance on our part to pretend to know what and why and how God is at work. There are times we cannot know, do not know, and do question "what in the world is God doing". Sometimes, there is just not an answer.

Hallowed-ness: Suffering is a sacred place. It is personal, intimate...it is a place where masks are stripped off and hearts and souls exposed. It is also a place where God is at work, and people are seeking answers. As others allow us into their worlds of suffering, we must recognize that we are stepping onto holy ground of the soul.

Hope: Though there are answers we don't have, we choose to believe what we understand to be true: that God is still in control...He is still working toward an end in which all that is evil will be finally and completely defeated, and that at some point, those who believe (not to be equated with those who never question or doubt) will experience the heaven He promises because Jesus' work on the cross was "enough".

Randy did a great job addressing this hard area, and likewise, did a great job tonight discussing how God uses ordinary people (again...what in the world is God doing?). And though I am really giving such a condensed version of what I understood him to say, the discussion was so relevant I wanted to note it here. Perhaps others might find it helpful as well.