If you are anything like me the dawn of a new year brings exciting thoughts. You make big goals, dream big dreams, and draw up long lists of things you hope transpire. All of that is perfectly fine and healthy, and indeed setting goals is something we should always be doing. Do we, however, ever think about what we are going to do when things don’t go according to plan? Because friends, here is the reality: things will not always go your way this year. Things you hope will happen will never occur, and things you wish to never occur will come to pass. There will be moments this year when you find yourself thinking that God simply doesn’t make sense. Instead of waiting for those moments to come, and not being prepared, its important to spend a few moments pondering what we do when God doesn’t seem to make sense to us.
The truth is, God will not always make sense. This is for two big reasons. First, human sin has messed up God’s perfect creation. God made our world perfectly, and formed humans in his image. Humanity was to live in blissful harmony forever, but our sin messed that all up, bringing suffering, death, and all other ills into the world. I once met with the family of a man who committed suicide. As if his death was not tragic enough, they had to endure person after person telling them that his death was God’s plan. We cannot forget that God’s plan was never for us to suffer, it was us who brought suffering into this world. God, in His perfect love and grace, gives us the perfect antidote to all pain and suffering: eternal life in a perfect heaven. No matter the difficulties this world hurls at us Jesus suffered and died so that we may have an eternity that is entirely perfect, devoid of any of the suffering we experience in this world.
Here’s the second thing we need to understand when God doesn’t make sense: God is so much greater then us that we can’t possibly fully comprehend Him. God has a plan for all of humanity for all of eternity, while we tend to get laser focused on what’s going to happen to us 15 minutes from now. The fact that God is not giving you what you want today does not mean He is not present, it just may mean He has a better plan then you do. Almost a decade ago I felt God making it clear I was supposed to turn down what appeared to be a dream job. In the months that followed, especially as I experienced difficulty in my job, I could not understand why he had me turned the position down. Yet, in the years that followed, it became so clear that turning down that job was absolutely what God needed for my family, my ministry, and myself.
There will be moments in 2016 that God will not make sense. When that happens, understand that God is right there will you, both now and for all eternity.
