Clergy folks tend to get asked the WHY? Question frequently. The inquiry appears to be asked most often during times of loss, fear, suffering, war…..times just like these.
At my first congregational appointment, a young couple had been trying for years to have a baby. Finally, the grand news for which all were praying and waiting…. she was pregnant! There was much celebration and anticipation. The baby was born premature, the little girl lived for a day and passed on. Why?
She cried the question to me…. Why…. usually followed by, “how could God let this happen?”
I am not one to pontificate nor to offer trite, tidy phrases found often on tea-towels.
I listened. I offered the comfort of being present to her and her grief. The question kept being asked, why?
I answered honestly…I did not know. I didn’t then and I don’t now.
I shared what I did know and do believe --- God was present, there with her in the midst of such deep sorrow and that “God’s heart was the first to break.” (A line offered by the Reverend William Sloane Coffin on the tragic death from a car accident of his twenty-something-year old son).
Personally, I find comfort in a God who grieves with us, is in process with us. I don’t need an omnipotent God with all the answers.
Here’s a riddle, a puzzle to discuss and wrestle and ponder:
God is all powerful
God is all loving
Evil exists
I cannot and will not give up on my deep belief that God is all loving, steadfast in love and that God constantly shows up for us.
I could be way off in my understanding, yet that is what based on experience and reflection I believe. Now, for me, I need the courage and the willingness to live as disciple to that belief.