Part II – Trusting God in the Storm
Let’s begin with some scripture.
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job… There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
– Job 1:1a, 1:2 & Job 1:18-19
What a massive tragedy. Job lost all his children as well as all his possessions in one brutal afternoon. News of disaster after disaster came to Job in rapid fire succession. What did Job do? Verses 20 and 21 of the first chapter tell us:
Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Job mourned (that was what the tearing of the rob and shaving of the head was all about) and then he worshipped God.
I am not Job. Honestly, I do not know how he did it. When tragedy struck our family, we did not lose all our children and all our possessions. Just one child. My heart was torn, my world wrecked and my faith was shaken. I did not respond like Job.
We are told that Job did not sin. Not even when Satan had his way and struck his very health, and his wife encouraged him to curse God and die. I sinned. I doubted God and called him unfair and unworthy of my trust.
If you have been following this series, you know that my 27-year-old daughter was unexpectedly taken from us in April 2024. We had rushed to her side where machines were keeping her body alive yet there was no sign of life in her. I remember thinking that morning after they had removed her from the machines and her body stopped functioning that this is a little bit of the grief that Job must have felt.
No one wants to ever lose a child. It is like having your heart ripped from you. I remember my grandmother’s grief after one of my uncles had passed away – she said, “No parent should ever have to bury their child”. For me it seemed double so. We had so many people praying and were expecting a miracle from God that did not come. I felt cheated. Other people got miracles, but God did not come through for me.
I felt I was living a righteous life and that I was doing what God wanted from me. (Spoiler – probably not, we so easily deceive ourselves.) I remembered that He said that anything we ask in His name He would do (And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:13-14). Am I to conclude that this promise does not apply to some people – people like me? If that is the case is this God worthy of my trust, my praise and my worship?
You know what – Job thought he was. In answer to his wife, he said: Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Job 2:10b. Job does mourn though. He feels great pain which is intimately revealed in the third chapter traditionally known as “Job’s Lament”. Here we see him in such pain and agony that the laments his very birth. Job was not aware of what transpired in Heaven, he was not aware that God offered Job to Satan because He knew that Job would prove to be a righteous man. In his ignorance of all of this he asks God why. Why has this happened to me, why has God struck me to my very heart and soul (Job 3:11-12, Job 3:20-23, Job 7:20-21 and Job 13:23-24).
I understand this question. This is what I felt and the question heaviest on my heart – why did God let this happen to me, to us? We could not see any good that could come out of God taking our daughter. We know all about Romans 8:28 – still we asked how can taking our daughter possibly be working for good?
The way we saw it we were being deprived of her love, of seeing her have children or watching her and her husband grow and mature, of enjoying them becoming loving parents. All of the things we dreamed for this child were never going to happen. None of that felt like good to me. I wondered to my self that maybe Romans 8:28 was just an empty promise? In my deepest moments of sorrow and grief I even doubted that God was good.
When you read the book of Job you learn that he too wondered and questioned why. From his limited perspective he observed the people who did bad prospering, not having to deal with this kind of loss and he wanted to know why God blessed them and yet made him a target. This question resonates through out the book. Even at the end of the book, when God finally comes and speaks with Job, He does not explain himself or His actions. He never tells Job why.
What God does is something more incredible – He reminds Job of who He really is. Six months after losing Jenna we began a study by Chip Ingram on “The Real God – How He Longs for You to see Him”. This was a huge revelation to me as I came to understand that how I see God helps me have peace with the huge question of “WHY”. This is what God did when He met with Job – He opened Jobs eyes as to His real nature and helped Job to see Him differently. This is what Job learned and why he was able to trust and worship God in his heartache.
God has not answered the why for me. I still wonder how such a tragic event will be used by God, but I now see God differently. I want to explore some of these attributes that I have learned about with you and how they can help us when we are lost, when we are lonely and when we experience tragedy, but before we do, we will look at the question – “Is it ok to be angry with God”. Join me in the next installment of this series when we examine this question.
By the way – I mentioned Chip Ingram’s study “The Real God – How He Longs for You to see Him” – you can find it online if you are interested in knowing more: https://livingontheedge.org/group-studies/the-real-god/?
