Together in spirit this Easter Sunday
Many people sincerely want to know how Christians can talk about an allpowerful, good and loving God when bad things hit the world.
I write this in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, so it’s an especially pertinent question, and we might as well ask it in its bluntest and most honest form. What good is God if we can’t get what we want from God? But that assumes God is like a vending machine that shoots out what we want if we put in the right prayer or the correct amount of faith. God is a mysterious, amazing and sometimes unfathomable reality; God can’t be explained, summed up or reduced to human expectations.
By the way, people of faith have wrestled with this for a long time. The biblical book of Job explores the question with poetic force and majesty — and it doesn’t come up with the answer, either. After his initial patience (which didn’t last), Job challenges God’s goodness and justice, while his pious friends try to browbeat him into humility and confession. Yet, while God reproves Job in thorough fashion, Job is still told he’s spoken more truly than his friends have. Say what? In the end, the book seems more about having an honest relationship with God rather than only worshipping human ideas about God. But, it doesn’t explain why we suffer.
The witness of millions has been about the value of God in their lives. The witness of millions has told about the strength of prayer. But we don’t understand why some prayers seem to be answered with what we want and some don’t. We’re sure God isn’t capricious or inattentive, and doesn’t play favorites. God also isn’t petty, so doesn’t refuse to answer prayers because someone has human failings or doubts, or doesn’t say the words in the right way. But, that doesn’t help us when a good man dies after years of illness. Why him, why are his wife and children crying and not the rotter who seems to have profited off his selfishness?
I honestly don’t know and yet, I still believe in God and in the power of prayer. And I’ve had experiences that can’t be explained in any other way. Sure, it sounds illogical, but the best things in life can’t be reduced to a formula. Beauty, hope, love, faith and goodness … all of them live outside of logic, and our lives would be impoverished without them.
The one thing I know is that my life would have less meaning, strength and joy without God. So, I’ll keep praying for help and for miracles, and I’ll give thanks for God’s presence. I may not know why bad things happen, but I know where God is when they do. We are not alone and that’ll have to be enough for now.
In the meantime, we’re going to celebrate Easter this Sunday — together in spirit if not in person, but we will still rejoice. Easter isn’t about the lilies or the songs; it’s about the extraordinary power of life and love, something we need to remember more than ever right now. I hope you can find faith in that and will experience the light that shines from a living Lord.