Sometimes God makes no sense to me at all. Here’s some help I received from the Bible at times when my faith faltered.

Please compare the following two Scripture readings. The first is from Mary’s magnificent Magnificat. The second is Jesus’ cousin, John, after he has been unjustly accused and arrested – an arrest which will end his life.

Luke 1
46Mary responded,
     “Oh, how I praise the Lord.
47     How I rejoice in God my Savior!
48   For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
       and now generation after generation
       will call me blessed.
49  For he, the Mighty One, is holy,
       and he has done great things for me.

Matthew 11
 2John the Baptist, who was now in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, 3“Are you really the Messiah we’ve been waiting for, or should we keep looking for someone else?”
4Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him about what you have heard and seen—5the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. 6And tell him: ‘God blesses those who are not offended by me.’”

Mary and John: are these two different faith-filled responses? Or did Mary make it and John fail?

In 2002 The World’s Funniest Joke was finally discovered and released upon an unsuspecting world. I have it here now; have you read it? Well it seems they took a year and invited people from around the world to judge jokes on an Internet site as well as contribute quips of their own. The LaughLab experiment conducted by psychologist Dr Richard Wiseman, from the University of Hertfordshire, attracted more than 40,000 jokes and almost two million ratings. Now, one of the reasons I was so interested in discovering this marvel of humor was the good Doctor’s identification of the joke which appealed most to people from all nations. I pastor a Church made up of people from all nations! I need this joke! The experiment revealed wide humor differences between nations. That might explain why my congregation never laughs at my jokes… 

The joke which received the highest global ratings was submitted by 31-year-old psychiatrist Gurpal Gosall, (I think his name is a bit of a joke) from Manchester, England. British humor! I know, I know, you’re dying to read the joke! So here it is!

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his cell phone, calls emergency services, and gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a long silence…and then a gunshot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, I’m sure he’s dead. Now what?"…Thank you, Dr Wiseman.

When we approach the Bible, often we miss the humor, or the irony, or the terror or the shock. Basically, we park our imaginations at the door when reading the Bible. But can you picture reading Tolkien's Lord of the Rings without using your imagination? Just as we do damage to Tolkien when fail to enter his dream, so we diminish God’s impact when we fail to visualize the backdrop to every Biblical story. So join me now as we imagine the pain for Mary, the shame for her dad and the questioning of Jesus’ cousin, John.

Mary’s Good News:
She is pregnant by the Holy Spirit of God! How would you react? We just read part of her reactions in the Luke account.  Now use your imagination and visualize her father’s reaction when she shares this “Good News”! How devastated do you think dad was? This is not every father’s dream; it’s their nightmare.

My wife, Sheryl, was studying Luke 1, “The Magnificat”, during the last year she spent with her late husband, Allan. God spoke to her heart while reading this Scripture. God seemed to say she needed to turn Allan over to the Lord. That is what she did. The very next week Allan was diagnosed with cancer, a disease he succumbed to a few months later. Do you think this raised some doubts in Sheryl’s mind? Is God good, really? Do you give your loved ones to God only to lose them in some perverse test?

John the Baptist’s Good News:
Jesus’ cousin is locked up in prison, awaiting death. His reaction we know from Scripture; let me share it with you:
John the Baptist, who was now in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you really the Messiah we’ve been waiting for, or should we keep looking for someone else?” (Matthew 11:2-3)

To say John was disappointed in Jesus is to park your imaginations at the door. John was beyond disappointed; he was deeply troubled. Everything he had believed in, hoped for, worked day and night to accomplish all hinged on his cousin making good on Jesus claim that He was, indeed, God’s Anointed and Chosen One! But Jesus wasn’t making any sense. John just couldn’t understand what was going on.  And it depressed him, discouraged him. Deep down I am certain he was furious. That’s consistent with what we see of John’s fiery nature. What was wrong with Jesus?! He wasn’t making any sense to John at all. So John sent Jesus this message: “Are you really the Messiah…or should we look for someone else?”

Sometimes the Good News in our lives turns disastrous. Circumstances beyond our control mess up our plans and shatter our dreams. Then along comes some well meaning but ill-informed Christian stating “Just believe and you will receive!  A Miracle is yours for the taking. If you can believe it, God will do it.” What happens to people who come to faith in Christ under such a Gospel message? What happens to your faith when life as it is turns out to be very different from life as it was supposed to be? James Dobson’s book shares the title of my observation. In it he says (p110),

…a person who really believes that all trouble will be swept away for the followers of Christ is left with no logical explanation when God fails to come through (as expected)….that person stumbles toward one of several conclusions, all of which are potentially damaging to faith: (Possible Conclusions when God fails to “come through”)

1. God is dead, irrelevant, bored, or uninvolved in the affairs of people.
2. God is angry at me for some sin I have committed.
3. God is whimsical, untrustworthy, unfair or sinister.
4. God ignored me because I didn’t pray enough or display enough faith.

Dobson goes on to observe, “All four of these alternatives serve to isolate that individual from God at precisely the moment when his or her spiritual need is the greatest”.

So then, what do we do when God’s ways do not make any sense to us?  Let me share with you seven principles you can follow to help you make some sense out of this mess.
1). God’s ways will not always make sense.
Isaiah 55:8-9
“My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

2). God is intimately involved even when appearing absent.
Psalm 37:1-2, 8-9, 39-40
Don’t worry about the wicked.
Don’t envy those who do wrong.
     For like grass, they soon fade away.
Like springtime flowers, they soon wither…
Stop your anger!
Turn from your rage!
Do not envy others--
it only leads to harm.
     For the wicked will be destroyed,
but those who trust in the LORD will possess the land…
The LORD saves the godly;
he is their fortress in times of trouble.
     The LORD helps them,
rescuing them from the wicked.
He saves them,
and they find shelter in him.

3). Face problems head-on by sharing your doubts with others who care.
Matthew 11:2-3
John the Baptist, who was now in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, 3“Are you really the Messiah we’ve been waiting for, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

4). Rely on God’s Word, not your feelings.
Matthew 11:4-5;
Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him about what you have heard and seen—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.

Isaiah 35:5-6; 61:1
And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unstop the ears of the deaf. The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will shout and sing! Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the desert…The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, because the LORD has appointed me to bring good news to the poor…

5). God’s timing is always on time.
John 11:1, 4, 7, 14
A man named Lazarus was sick… But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death… Finally after two days, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go to Judea again…Lazarus is dead…”

Please remember: you may want a “healing of the sick” miracle when God wants a “raising of the Dead” miracle.

6). God loves you...period!
With parental love:
Fatherly love: Psalm 103:13
“The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.”
Motherly love: Isaiah 66:13
“I will comfort you there as a child is comforted by its mother.”

7). Your Arms are too short to box with God
Job 40:1-5; 42:5-6
Then the LORD said to Job, “Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers?” Then Job replied to the LORD, “I am nothing—how could I ever find the answers? I will put my hand over my mouth in silence. I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.”… “I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.”

Make this your prayer
And when, dear God, we grow weary of trying to make sense of that which seems to make no sense and of trying to find answers to what seems unanswerable and when we are left with little else than our doubt and our sadness, help us somehow to remember that earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.