God is NOT to blame! Making sense of the goodness of God in the midst of pain, suffering, and tragedy

I grew up with the traditional view of God’s sovereignty and omnipotence in a world of tragedy and evil…God either wills it or allows it. Everything that happens is part of His sovereign plan. But, my own experience left me with questions as to His safety. I wrestled with the question, “Is He unable or unwilling? Our world is filled with tragedies and much of what we offer are cliches that do little to comfort in the midst of it all.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. It was a picture that first challenged my worldview. It was an award winning picture of a 2 year old child, near starvation, curled up in a fetal position with a vulture waiting about 8 feet away. The picture had the words, “According to some, this is God’s plan for her life.”

Theresa was a 15 year old who lived in an upscale Detroit neighborhood. She was forced into the world of sex trafficking for 2 years, sold to numerous men and subjected to abuse and torture, until her family moved to the East Coast. Would she find the words, “Your life might not be going according to your plan, but it’s going exactly the way God planned it.”?

She was 8 years old…just a child…and every night she faced what she later called, “The Gauntlet”…10 feet from the hallway to the stairs to her bedroom…right through her brother’s room. 3 or 4 nights a weeks she was stopped, forced onto his bed and raped. As she cried herself to sleep, do you suppose she took comfort in the knowledge that “Sometimes we just can’t see His plan through our tears.”?

A well known pastor confidently stated that every evil person acts with God’s permission, according to His sovereign will, and within His appointed limits. Tell that to the parents of 20 1st graders gunned down by a 20 year old. Why was 20 the limit? Why not 16? Or 5? Another pastor stated that the Sandy Hook Massacre was God’s judgment for removing prayer from school.

I realize there are nuances to these cliches. But, do they work for those experiencing great suffering and pain or inexplicable tragedy? If they don’t, are they really true of God?

This traditional view has been called the blueprint worldview. This view assumes that everything that happens fits in God’s sovereign plan and fulfills His sovereign purpose. We equate His sovereignty and omnipotence with control and as a result, the problem of evil and tragedy then becomes a problem of finding a loving and good purpose  behind every event. We end up reworking the definition of good to include everything that happens…because a good God either planned it or allowed it, it must be good even if we can’t see it…even if it makes no sense to us…it still must be good. Like the cowardly lion, “I do believe! I do believe! I do, I do, I do believe!” All the while, our soul recoils from such a definition of good. Our soul allows us to believe that which our mind refuses to articulate.

When we follow this view, we find ourselves believing in a God who is less loving than we are…more negligent than we are…less wise than we are. If any parent would do the things we attribute to God, they would be jailed for abuse or negligence. His actions often sound like the actions of a pimp. He takes us away from familiar places, strips us of everything so we learn to depend upon Him, and then repeatedly causes/allows our pain, then comforts through it.  This cycle of pain/comfort continues throughout our lives. That sounds more like a pimp than the amazing Lover that He is.

The blueprint worldview creates uncertainty as to how to respond…if it comes from God…for our good….we should resign ourselves to it…be patient and wait for Him to reveal the purpose or lesson He had in mind. This creates a resignation and passivity that can often be mistaken as rest.

Furthermore, it plants a seed of distrust, hindering us from surrendering everything…we’re afraid He’ll take our child, spouse, etc. It hinders intimacy….if He is the one who is responsible, either through His will or His permission, for my child’s death, the abuse I suffered, etc…then He is not safe.

God is breathtakingly beautiful in a world that is breathtakingly evil. Our theodicy in the face of such evil should never mar His beauty and goodness. Neither should we redefine goodness to include everything that happens. When we do this, He is neither safe nor trustworthy. Our soul knows that…our mind refuses to see it.

The Warfare worldview gives us a more convincing theodicy that enhances the beauty, goodness and power of God. This view believes our world is engaged in a cosmic war between a myriad of agents, both human and angelic, that have aligned themselves with either God or Satan, and evil is an expected part of war. We are in a war…the enemy wants to bring us down! He wants to destroy us and wound God’s heart.

Ephesians 6:12…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

If we are going to embrace a warfare worldview, there are a couple things we need to deconstruct…

The first is the belief that God is in control.This brings us a measure of comfort….we can lean on His sovereignty and believe He will work everything out for our good. He will take care of all that happens in our lives. But, it also means He is responsible for the evil in this world. 

The Bible does not say God is in control…it says He is sovereign. We have equated sovereignty with control, but sovereignty means “to reign.” It is more like a king sitting on a throne. He is sovereign in his land…but doesn’t control everything that happens. Both good and bad happens. The land is filled with ambassadors, soldiers, and people who have a relationship with him and want the best for the land. They work with the king for the good of the kingdom. But, it is also home to revels, evildoers and others bent on destroying the land and working against the good of the kingdom. The one who is on the throne has ultimate authority and is powerful…but he is not causing everything that happens in his land.

The next is the idea that God’s will is always accomplished. In a war, battles are won and battles are lost. Ground is gained in some areas, and lost in others. We are not fighting a wimpy host. Yes, he is defeated, but he is seeking to take as many down with him as he can. Like the Balrog’s whip wound itself around Gandalf’s ankle when it seemed the fight was done, Satan seeks to snare us and destroy us. We will readily allow that Satan might win some battles…but are reluctant to say that God loses some battles. But, those are one and the same thing: if Satan wins…God has lost.

Some would express the concern that this lessens God but I say it exalts Him. God doesn’t have to deal the cards to win the game…He doesn’t have to win every hand to win the game. He doesn’t have to plan everything that happens in order for things to work out for good…He doesn’t even have to know them. Whatever tactic the enemy uses, He can meet it. Whatever weapon the enemy throws our way, He can use THAT WEAPON against the enemy and for our good.

One strategy of warfare is to blockade the opponent. The enemy blocks us from our mission…and we see it as God closing a door…so we wait in the hallway until He opens another door. If you have your heart set on something…and it reflects God’s heart…do not accept closed doors! Do not wait in the hallway! You find some way of getting that door open. The passion in you indicates you have an assignment and your enemy has placed a blockade to keep you from fulfilling your mission. Most often, closed doors are not God’s doing, but Satan’s. When you resign yourself to closed doors, you give up on the assignment God has placed within you. Resignation should never be the attitude of a faithful warrior.

Jeremiah tells us the story of a potter who was working at his wheel. The vessel he was working on spoiled in his hand. The potter then reworked the clay into another vessel as seemed good to the potter. God likened Himself to this potter. When things go awry…when lives are spoiled…when devastation has taken its toll….He REWORKS it! For His glory and our good! That’s what His sovereignty and omnipotence can do!

Paul tells us in Romans that God works ALL THINGS for our good and that we are MORE THAN CONQUERORS! Just because God didn’t plan everything that happens doesn’t mean He can’t use it. Whatever trials, tragedies, sufferings that come…God presses them into service for your good and His glory.

When we can say with confidence, “I know this is NOT God.” we are able to trust Him more fully. We can surrender to Him without fear that He’ll take that which we treasure to test us or teach us. Our relationship with Him doesn’t need to stay in this place of tension and fear…wanting to surrender, but not sure what He’ll do. We can rise up and fight the enemy, using whatever weapon he attempted to use to destroy us!

We realize we are God’s ambassadors. We have authority and dominion to do something about it. So the question is no longer, “Why did God let this happen?” but “Why did WE let this happen?” It creates ownership and personal responsibility. We can join hands with Him and work to end the evil and bring good to the tragedies that occur in our lives and the lives of others.

Warfare makes for a stronger bride. We learn to fight alongside our Bridegroom rather than expecting Him to do everything for us. We get scars in the process…scars that are beautiful to God…trophies of war…signs that we triumphed!

We look to Him for comfort in the midst of pain…we reach for Him for help and power…we trust He is working to bring good out of evil…we are confident that the war will one day come to a glorious end…but we stop looking for God’s purposes to explain the tragedy or evil that occurs. We stop trying to attribute it to God. God’s not to blame! The enemy of our souls is the one to blame. God’s sovereignty, omnipotence, and omniscience does not mean He has caused or purposed every event that occurs…but it does mean we can partner with Him and triumph over the enemy through the very means he meant for our destruction. 

Rise up, warrior of God! Take up your weapons and fight! Put your hand in the hand of your Father…and you will destroy the enemy with the very thing he intended to destroy you!