Unanswered Questions...

Don’t they just aggravate you? The whys of daily existence are always there. If we could just get a few answers then we could understand and make some sense of life and what’s happening. It would then be better or at least that’s what we tell ourselves.

I used to have in my mind a list of questions to ask God when I saw him. The theological problems with all of this are beyond the scope of this article (all that means is humor me for a moment). I have since abandoned that notion but I will try to recreate some of them. They included: why are innocent babies born with aids or cancer? Why does the earth tilt? Are Murphy’s laws laws or are they just observations of just the way it is? Why are some people healed and others not? You get the drift. I asked a group of men recently what question would they ask God if they only had one? One replied he wanted to know why Jesus was here only 331/2 years with only 31/2 years of ministry? Wouldn’t more time be better? (He got away with two questions. That’s a baptist for ya). How about you what would you ask God?

These questions arise when our expectations of how things should be or go are unmet or not realized.

Last Friday evening Lizzy and I went to pizza place for carry-out. We discussed our order and then waited for it to come out of the oven. We ordered a pepperoni lovers, hand tossed pizza. It was ready and we took it home from Rincon. Got drinks and plates ready opened the box and there is a meat lover’s pan inside. I checked the receipt and it showed pepperoni lovers. What happened? So I called the store and they were sorry and would exchange it but I was 15 to 20 minutes away and that again back home. I did not want to go there. They were sorry but I was still disappointed. Lizzy did not want sausage on her pizza that was the reason for the pepperoni lover’s. No, we did not check it before we left the store. Yes, we should have checked it before we left the store if it was that important. Question as to why still unanswered so we ate it anyway. She picked off the sausage and I got extra. It even left some for Geoff, Carolyn and Barbara when they got home.

Unanswered questions for illness, accidents, injuries, blessings and non-blessings sometimes plague us. Even questions as to why something did NOT happen to me or my family can haunt us. Jeremiah the “crying prophet” wondered why the people would not listen to God’s message to escape the impending destruction. I think the same reason teens don’t listen to parents. Maybe we have done all the right things, made all the right moves and our plans have fallen through for unexplained, unseen and unknown reasons. Often that leads to frantic prayers for God to do something or answer our questions right then. Job had questions. Boy did he have questions but God answered his questions NOT. Job did all the right things the right way and still his plans went down the tube through no fault of his. Unanswered Questions, lead us to blame God, to wonder if he cares, to wonder if he exists. Pete Wilson in his book Putting plan B into Action writes,

When our Plan A fails and Plan B overtakes us, we must be willing to let go of our dreams and take hold of God’s plan for our lives—whether we understand or not. Reality is not as simple as we try to make it. We don’t always have the answers but God is still God. We are called to be faithful and worship Him for who He is, even when it seems He has is not coming through the way we hoped [answers or actions]. Knowing Him for who he is will always be more valuable than any dream we could ask Him to fulfill.

You may have more questions than answers, but will you still trust God enough to seek Him in the middle of your Plan B? Are you willing to abandon your dreams in order to receive the life he has dreamed for you? Job did and God blessed him twice as much as before. No answers just divine action beyond his wildest dreams. By the way I have decided I won’t have any questions to ask God fore I will know Him in His fullness and that will be enough!