The Great Big Why
By Collin Haddock-
In the meandering courses of our lives, I think one question gets asked more than the others.
“Why?”
The question of “why?” gets posed over and over again because, frankly, we simply do not know why.
Why did this happen? We don’t know. Why did that happen? We don’t know. We strive to know.
The answers for “why” are often easy.
“Why is dinner burnt?” My phone rang and it was an important call from work. I got in an argument with the Amazon Echo.
“Why did the lights go out?” There’s a tree limb on the line. I tried to time travel with my new invention.
There’s some sort of tangible or logical answer that’s accessible for us. But, as I’m sure we’ve all seen as of late, there are many times where we ask “why?” not with curiosity but with frustration, with anger, with great sadness. It often exits our lungs and mouths with a pained sigh. “Why did this happen? Why did I lose this? Why did this leave? Why did it have to happen like this?” These are the great big whys that we do not know how to answer and we often cannot answer.
But we do know this: God knows. And God is totally in control. He’s sovereign over everything.
Why we go through the soul crushing times we do go through will often times not be answered until our faith is made complete in front of Jesus Himself, but we do have God’s promise that even the hardest times are meant for His glory and will work for the good of His chosen and called people. Paul writes in the letter to the Roman church, that “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28.)* This means that everything we do go through will ultimately work towards the ultimate good. Everything we encounter is intended to draw us closer and closer to Him that we may magnify Him more and more. Nothing you and I go through is on accident, it’s part of a sovereignly laid out plan. The Great Big Why is part of that. Paul continues this up-in-the-sky look by writing, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:29–30.)* God started a work, He will complete the work—not in spite of the Great Big Whys, but through them.
This sovereignty is also a great comfort. Though the road is paved with sadness, grief, sorrow, and confusion, your guide is good and not only knows the path but is the very one who set it forth! That is Jesus our shepherd. He is a gentle and good shepherd. The Great Big Whys should drive us into the arms of the Savior.
The Heidelberg Catcheism, an old teaching tool that works via question and response, sums it up beautifully in the answer to its first question “What is your only comfort in life and death?”: “That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ...He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head.” **
Christian-do not forget the answer to why you live, before you’re consumed with the Great Big Whys of life. Let Him carry those questions.
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* = all references are taken from the English Standard Version.
**= The Hiedelburg Confession, Question 1.
