Life. life's BIG question

A recurring theme
Do you ever notice a recurring theme in your life? If you’re a dental hygienist, floss is a recurring theme in your life. If you are a new parent, diapers are a recurring theme in your life. If you are a student, books are a recurring theme in your life. (Do they still use books?) If you are a Ducks basketball fan, winning games are a recurring theme in your life. You get the picture.

Something that is constantly recurring demands attention. It shows itself to be an important part of life. There is something that is a constantly recurring theme in my life.

I sat beside the hospital bed of a wonderful woman within our congregation. She has prayed and trusted God every step of the way. She went in for a single operation which turned into multiple operations. Each one had a complication of some type. The most recent complication was a nicked artery that continued to bleed. As I sat there holding her hand just a few hours after her latest operation, she said to me, “Pastor, why is this happening? What am I doing wrong?”

I was in my office, sitting across my desk from a young couple with two young children. One had recently passed away from cancer and the other was now showing concerning symptoms and was being tested at Dornbecher’s Hospital. The mother asked me, “Why did our son have to die? Why him?”

After the devastating tsunami in Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004, where over 283,000 lives were lost, the world together asked, “Why did this happen?”

I could give you many other examples. This is not only a recurring theme in my life, but in everyone’s life. It is common to the human condition. It is important. It is something that we should talk about.

THE QUESTION
The BIG Question is one of the oldest known to man, spanning cultures and civilizations. It has been wrestled with by just about every philosopher, theologian… by every human being for that matter. Here, it is taken on by the writer of Ecclesiastes, The Preacher, one who had gained more wisdom than all who had come before him (Eccl. 1:16). Traditionally, Solomon is considered the writer of Ecclesiastes.
Let’s take a look.

Ecclesiastes 8:14 (NKJV) 14 There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

This question has two parts, or two forms:

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why do good things happen to bad people?

The Bible does not sidestep this issue or gloss over it. I’m so grateful about that. Solomon is the one asking this question. I have noticed that when people ask this question they are somewhat ashamed even to be asking it. You don’t have to be ashamed to ask this question. It is a legitimate question. It is life’s BIG question.

LET’S THINK ABOUT IT
This is an important question, worthy of some real thought. Let’s think carefully about it.

1. Think about the question, not the answer.

Ecclesiastes 8:16-17 (NKJV) 16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.

Here it is in the Message Bible:
When I determined to load up on wisdom and examine everything taking place on earth, I realized that if you keep your eyes open day and night without even blinking, you’ll still never figure out the meaning of what God is doing on this earth. Search as hard as you like, you’re not going to make sense of it. No matter how smart you are, you won’t get to the bottom of it.

What this is saying is this is a question that you cannot answer. Even if you were the wisest man on earth. Even if you could see everything, the ‘Big Picture’, and could put all the pieces together, you still wouldn’t get it.

§ You can’t answer it.

You may think, “Well, that’s a really bad trick. That’s terrible. This is all just a dead end then.” Is it really? Maybe we should look again. If there is a question that we cannot find the answer to, no matter how hard we try, what could that mean? Could it mean that it is the question itself I need, not the answer?

We are focused so hard on the answer that we have failed to realize that it is the question, not the answer, that is the real point. The value for life is in the question. The question, instead of challenging God’s existence actually supports it. Are you willing to change your focus?

Change your focus
Dalene and I went over to our daughter and son-in-law’s house (Jenni and Tony). While there, Tony and I went down to play video games in his media room. He has a 10 ½ foot screen, projector, surround sound, computer links and the works all hooked up in this great room. It is a guys paradise. That’s why I let him marry my daughter.

He decided to show me how to play a racing game. I am terrible at video games but I figure I am a pretty good driver, so I’m really going to impress him on this game. He set it all up and ran through the course to show me how it works. I watched very carefully because he was about to be amazed.

Now it was my turn. I picked a Maserati car to drive. The clock counted down and I peeled off the line. I wasn’t going to use the brake, that just slows you down. So I was working the gas pedal, just shooting through the curves. Everything was flying by so quickly that I just focused on the track ahead, not looking at any of my gauges.

I was real proud of myself. Then I heard Tony say, “You’re going 30 mph.” Not too impressive with a Maserati on a race track. I guess I needed to look at the speedometer.

I need this question
Let’s look from life that’s whizzing by to the question itself. I need this unanswerable question in my life for at least two reasons:

§ How do I respond when I don’t know the answer? If God owes me an answer, then He is not God. When I don’t understand everything that God is doing, do I still trust Him? There’s only one way to know… if I don’t understand everything.

§ It shows that God is bigger than I am, and bigger than I can understand. Isn’t that just what I would expect? Why worship a God so small that I could understand Him?

2. Think about the alternative.

Ecclesiastes 9:2-3 (NKJV) 2 All things come alike to all: One event happens to the righteous and the wicked; To the good, the clean, and the unclean; To him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good, so is the sinner; He who takes an oath as he who fears an oath. 3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 (NKJV) 11 I returned and saw under the sun that— The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all.

A merit system
Consider the underlying assumption that we bring into this question. The assumption is this: If you do good, then good things should happen to you. If you do bad, then bad things should happen to you. In other words, a merit system. What you merit, that’s what you get. When we ask the BIG question, we are actually advocating a merit system. That is the alternative. Is that really what you want?

Like on that movie Bruce Almighty, I pretend that I am Jim Almighty. “Now that I am God,” I say, “I will run everything on a merit system. That’s how things should work. As you merit, so it happens to you.” This creates a couple of problems.

§ A merit system eliminates grace...

Do you realize that everytime we ask that question we are devaluing grace? What is grace? It is God giving us beyond what we deserve. Grace is God going beyond the merit system. Grace is not-so-good people getting better than their actions merit.

If we revert from grace to the merit system, we may eliminate the BIG question, but now we have a BIG problem. We all need grace for this life and for eternal life. Whoops.

So, as Jim Almighty, I adjust my system a little bit. Okay, good things can happen to bad people, but good things can only happen to good people. If you do good things then you are guaranteed good things.

§ and produces conditional obedience.

Doing good things (being good) to receive good things is conditional obedience. It says, “Okay, I will obey as long as I get something for it.” There is a condition on obedience. Conditional obedience is not really obedience. It is manipulation. It is obligation. The legal term is ‘quid pro quo’, meaning ‘this for that.’

Obedience is a form of worship. Obeying God just because He is God is worship. Conditional obedience is not worship. It removes the worship element of our relationship with God and replaces it with a payment

That is why I say, “A merit system eliminates grace and produces conditional obedience.” God doesn’t really owe me, or anybody, anything at all. Whatever He gives us is grace. If He choses to do things that I don’t fully understand… well, He’s God. I trust Him. I can only make that statement when I don’t fully understand.

3. Think about the timing.

They say that, “Timing is everything.” That is certainly true here.

Ecclesiastes 9:12 (NKJV) 12 For man also does not know his time: Like fish taken in a cruel net, Like birds caught in a snare, So the sons of men are snared in an evil time, When it falls suddenly upon them.

There are two things I want to say about this issue of timing.

§ Difficulty comes and goes.

Often, life’s difficulties spring upon us like a trap springs upon an unsuspecting prey. One moment everything is fine, or we think it’s fine. The next minute we’re trapped. It happened so suddenly. All of a sudden, things are dark and hopeless. There is no way out. That’s when we despair. That’s when we ask the BIG question.

What we can’t see in those dark times is there is a way out. Things are not hopeless. Often, just as quickly as the trap sprung it can unspring. Sometimes in the most hopeless of situations we find an unexpected escape. Think of Joseph thrown into a pit by his brothers in Genesis 37. Even the difficulty ends up being for our good.

That is why depression and suicide and euthanasia are so tragic. Things may seem hopeless now, but they won’t always be. Difficulties come and difficulties go. You don’t know what tomorrow holds.

§ This is an ‘evil time’.

The other thing is this: This life on earth is an “evil time” (Hebrew: ra` `eth). Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) In the same chapter, He describes this life for us is like a woman in childbirth. She has pain when she is going through labor but as soon as the child is born she forgets the pain because of her great joy. Jesus said this life is our labor. It is going to be painful.

The next life will be nothing but joy.
The Apostle Paul said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time [this evil time] are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) He also said we should be redeeming the time, for the days are evil. (Eph. 5:16). Psalm 90 repeats this same theme.

And I quote the great theologian Edith Bunker. Once Archie asked her if there was a God then why was the world so messed up. She said, “That’s easy. It’s so when we get to heaven we’ll notice the difference.”

Eternal life
This life will be over before you know it. The next life is promised to those who, by grace, receive God’s gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. Not because they are so good they earn it.

Conclusion
We have been challenged to see things differently today. If you are going through a difficult time right now, asking the BIG question, I would say to you:

§ Don’t be ashamed of asking the question. Wrestling with this question refines our worship.

§ Take heart. God does know. He does care. He is at work.

§ Take hope. This evil time will end.


I would like to end with a rather unusual poem that I found. It is ‘A Prayer for Disturbance.’

A PRAYER FOR DISTURBANCE
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new Earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love."

—Sir Francis Drake, explorer and naval pioneer during the Elizabethan era