Good News Sense

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We’ve al been there. A friend or acquaintance tells us a dreadful story of sin, corruption, injustice, or evil, and we want to assure them of deliverance, redemption, justice, and the victory of righteousness. They ask, “How soon?” We want to say, “Now!” but we cannot. We know too many stories where the desired outcome failed to happen. We’ve been disappointed ourselves. We have our own unanswered questions. We hate to admit it, but we struggle with our own doubts. Like David we ask, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me. Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and thy God” (Psalm 42:5, 11; 43:5).

How do we find hope when we feel so hopeless? How can we believe that things will be right when they are evidently so wrong? It’s not like the stories where the cavalry came over the hill just in time to drive off the savages or when the wise man knows exactly what to say and his words are unerringly accurate.

Some have asked, “How can bad things happen to good people?” but we know that none of us are really good. We want to know why bad things happen to innocents, to children who have never harmed a soul. We want to know why the most evil of men—the Hitlers, Lenins, and Pol Pots—ever get the chance to kill, torture, and maim. How can we have hope when this world seem so hopeless so much of the time?

We who ask such questions should read and mediate upon Psalm 37, often and at length. In it, David urges that those who do evil should neither be envied nor “fretted over.” The brief successes of the wicked may seem unfair compared to the setbacks that the righteous may experience, but in the end the unrighteous will disappear like smoke. Those who do good will know the everlasting blessing of God. We observe these apparent inequities and injustices from this moment in time; God puts things to right from his all-knowing, everlasting perspective, one we will share in the end.

What creates evil in the hearts of human beings? How does a seemingly innocent child become an Osama Bin Laden or a Jeffrey Dahmer? Where does the evil of a man who throws a baby out of a car window come from? How does any child become an adult capable of beheading a victim for religion or drugs? This is a puzzle because good people escape the evil circumstances of horrible families and childhood experiences while the most loving parents and finest homes somehow produce an occasional “black sheep,” some who become anything but righteous. How does this happen?

These two sets of troubling questions are related because we live in a world marred by sin. No one escapes; everyone is affected because every person sins. The affects of human sin corrupt all human culture. Even the creation itself is marked by sin. What we often call “acts of God” are part of this shadow on the impersonal world. As much as they cause pain, the more personal evil causes even greater pain, leading to our asking, “Why? Why? Why?”

In Romans 8, Paul calls them birth pains and adds, “All things work together for good for those who love God…” Does this mean all sunshine and roses and happy endings? We know better. The “good” is for those who love God “to be conformed to the image of his Son,” in other words, to become Christ-like. I won’t overstate the case, but I suspect the explanation is simple. The evil in us requires strong medicine to reshape us into righteous, holy people suitable for the family of God, the household of faith, and the kingdom where Christ reigns.

The good news in this is that even the worst of suffering and pain, evil and wickedness, and pain and sorrow produce good, by God’s plan. We may not understand it now. It may feel wrong. Our minds may not be able to make sense of it. I believe, however, that His promises are real and certain to be fulfilled, and one day we will comprehend and appreciate what He will have accomplished, itself at a terrible price—the death of his own son on a cross.

In whose hands lies the future? Most Christians would say God holds the future in his hands, but do they really believe it? Do I really believe it? The question of Man’s responsibility related to God’s providence is not easy to reconcile or even comprehend. The Bible says some remarkably strong things about God’s control over everything; after all, he is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. The only way we can conclude that God is not in control is if, for some reason, He chooses not to be.

Yet, He does hold us accountable for our choices, our irresponsibility, and our sin. He says we “reap what we sow.” He will forgive us of the judgment we deserve, and we will free us from the bondage to our sin. Yet, he permits us to endure the consequences of our choices. To further complicate our understanding, we live in a world where we suffer the effects of the sins of other people and the corruption of the creation itself because of sin, starting with Adam. It is plain, the Jesus wasn’t kidding when he said, “In this world you will have troubles,” or when he said, “Take heart!  I have overcome the world.”

Over against that rather gloomy prospect are numerous promises—a Holy Spirit to guide us, the privilege of prayer to seek God’s intervention, and the assurance of blessings in a variety of situations. “All things work together for good for those who love God” sound pretty positive until we take into account that what is good for us may not be enjoyable (as most of us learned when we were children). It’s great to know that we can “cast all our cares on Him, because He cares for us,” yet we often wish caring meant blocking the unpleasant things we have to endure.

That brings us to the election or to any election, for that matter. In this event lie all the varied and confusing principles that puzzle and trouble us. We have choices, but God is sovereign over all. Christians vote as citizens, but a majority of voters are most likely not believers. God seems to have had a plan and purpose for these United States of America, but that destiny seems to have ended or, at least, been interrupted. We pray, some of us anyway, and yet things don’t go as we assume they should if God is listening.

I suspect that the biggest problem is that too many of us say we trust God then proceed to place our trust somewhere else—in the government, in our investments, in ourselves. The Proverbs say, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” The promises are clear, but the conditions are just as clear…not easy, but clear!

Psalm 37 is just as clear: “He will give you the desires of your heart.” The righteous will endure and prevail, and the wicked will be gone. Again, there are conditions: “Commit your way to the Lord;” “Trust in the Lord and do good.” Perhaps the biggest danger for believers today is compromise; we want the blessings and yet to hang on the “the sin that so easily entangles.” Thus the advice is to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

In other words, no matter how bad things look (and even more when times seem good) no matter if evil seems to have the upper hand, hang in there. This isn’t sanctimonious drivel; it is God’s honest truth, a commodity in rare supply in these times. Trust God, do good, don’t give up, and you will “inherit the land.”