On Asking God "Why"

God does many things that we do not understand. Of course He does - He is God, perfect in wisdom, love, and power. We are only children, very far from perfect in anything. A true faith must rest solidly on His character and His Word, not on our particular conceptions of what He ought to do. He is not only the Almighty. He is also our Father, and what a father does is not by any means always understood by the child. He has not left us entirely in the dark. We know a great deal more about His purposes than poor old Job did, yet Job trusted Him. If an earthly father loves the child, the child trusts him. It is the child's ultimate good that the father has in mind. So it is with our Heavenly Father.

This is all terribly elementary, and yet I have to be reminded of this whenever something I want is denied, something I have worked hard for fails, something I prize is lost or when somebody I love is gravely ill. In these trials of life, I desire to have the "peace that transcends all understanding" that we are promised when we come to know Jesus in all His glorious sovereignty and ruling over our lives. And it is in these trials that I seek the lessons that God wants to teach me, and that means that I ask why. My 'why' is an honest search, in faith, for His meaning (at least I pray that it is, as opposed to being a 'why' meant as a challenge of unbelief and rebellion). Despite my trials and the questions that I ask both in the midst and after them, I am reminded that God is my Father still, and He does have a purpose for me, and that nothing - absolutely nothing - is useless in the fulfillment of that purpose if I'll trust Him for it and submit to the lessons.

"God disciplines us for our good that we may share His holiness. That is a strong clue to the explanation we are always seeking. God's purpose for us is holiness - His own holiness which we are to share - and the sole route to that end is discipline." Why, you may argue, should discipline be the prerequisite to sharing in God's holiness and thus His joy? The answer is our beautiful Jesus. Christ, who exemplified for all time the principle of life out of death, in the incarnation and the death on a cross and the resurrection. His lowly birth as a helpless baby and his death as a common criminal accomplished our salvation. Jesus, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured a cross. It follows that if we are to share in His destiny, we must share in His death, which means, for us sinners, the willingness to offer up to Him not only ourselves but all that goes with that gift, including the simplest, down-to-earth things. And by the grace of God, we may be taught His loving lessons and be brought a little nearer to His loving purpose for us and thus be enlarged, that is, conformed to the image of Christ.

I do not know why some are afflicted with cancer and some live fully-heathy lives. I do not know why some are blessed with a husband and some are asked to trust in Him as they toil to be content in their singleness. I do not know why some are blessed with monetary gain and why some must work and sweat and save every penny in order to provide bread for their families' tummies. I do not know why some are born into a rich nation with abundant resources and why some are born in the bush of a third-world country with only mud and garbage to eat. But God does. "Have you descended to the springs of the sea, or walked in the unfathomable deep?" No, Lord, but You have. Nothing in those dark caverns is mysterious to You. Nor is anything in my life or my friend's life or the lives of the children I'll meet in Rwanda next month. I trust You with the unfathomables. But You know I'll be back - with the usual question.

My passage above is based on Elisabeth Elliot's chapter "On Asking God Why" 
in her book On Asking God Why: Reflections on Trusting God.