Ask If You Dare
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me if you understand.”
“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
Let him who accuses God answer him!”
Job 38:4, 40:2
Wow! I don’t know how you feel when you read those words but to be honest, they make me a little nervous. For all of chapter 38 and 39 God speaks to Job in the same vein. Todd Agnew has a song called “Where Were You” that is kind of the Reader’s Digest version of those chapters. The song makes me squirm a bit too.
Have you ever questioned God? If your answer is no, can you respond to this message or somehow find me and tell me your story? Frankly, I cannot imagine getting from point A, “God? Yeah, I’ve heard of Him” to point B, “My God and King” without asking questions but maybe that’s just me. All facetiousness aside, I would love to be more trusting, to simply let God be God. After all, He clearly doesn’t need my permission.
God is pretty blunt with Job. In the Scripture it’s all written so perfectly and worded so well. I think it boils down to, “look partner, I made the world and everything in it. I’ve got this and I don’t need you and your ‘why Daddy, why’. Got it?”
A little over a year ago my dear friend Karen, passed away. She suffered in the extreme but the worst part was that sometimes, she didn’t. Three separate times we were sure we were about to say good-bye and then she would rally. That was great except each time the next bout of illness was worse than the one before. (I know that isn’t an isolated story, it’s just one that is close to me.) One day, leaving her house, I called another close friend. I cried and cried, telling her, “Char, I can’t believe how bad this is. She’s miserable. Why is this happening?”
Why indeed. I still don’t know. Ten months later Karen was at my son’s wedding complaining about how thin her neck had gotten. She was happy, healthy and seemingly recovering, right up until she wasn’t and we went through the whole ordeal again and again. Why? I don’t know but I promise you I asked and not in terribly polite terms.
We read Scriptures like James 4:2b “You do not have because you do not ask.” Then wonder why, when we asked it seems that God said, “No.” Why tell us to ask then? I think the answer is in those chapters from Job, because as much as we can learn about God we will never know the whole story. Where were you when He was creating the world? Where were you when He set the patterns for day and night? Or created trees? Or decided to make some people lovely to look at and others hideous? Where were you when He created you?
God and God alone is responsible for the creation of…. Everything. We have the ability to question Him by His grace but we might not want to use it too much. Some questions are better left unspoken. The answer just might be, “Where were you?” And our answers to that are never going to be sufficient. Trust and obey, that’s our part and I, for one, would like to get better at doing just that.
Tell me if you understand.”
“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
Let him who accuses God answer him!”
Job 38:4, 40:2
Wow! I don’t know how you feel when you read those words but to be honest, they make me a little nervous. For all of chapter 38 and 39 God speaks to Job in the same vein. Todd Agnew has a song called “Where Were You” that is kind of the Reader’s Digest version of those chapters. The song makes me squirm a bit too.
Have you ever questioned God? If your answer is no, can you respond to this message or somehow find me and tell me your story? Frankly, I cannot imagine getting from point A, “God? Yeah, I’ve heard of Him” to point B, “My God and King” without asking questions but maybe that’s just me. All facetiousness aside, I would love to be more trusting, to simply let God be God. After all, He clearly doesn’t need my permission.
God is pretty blunt with Job. In the Scripture it’s all written so perfectly and worded so well. I think it boils down to, “look partner, I made the world and everything in it. I’ve got this and I don’t need you and your ‘why Daddy, why’. Got it?”
A little over a year ago my dear friend Karen, passed away. She suffered in the extreme but the worst part was that sometimes, she didn’t. Three separate times we were sure we were about to say good-bye and then she would rally. That was great except each time the next bout of illness was worse than the one before. (I know that isn’t an isolated story, it’s just one that is close to me.) One day, leaving her house, I called another close friend. I cried and cried, telling her, “Char, I can’t believe how bad this is. She’s miserable. Why is this happening?”
Why indeed. I still don’t know. Ten months later Karen was at my son’s wedding complaining about how thin her neck had gotten. She was happy, healthy and seemingly recovering, right up until she wasn’t and we went through the whole ordeal again and again. Why? I don’t know but I promise you I asked and not in terribly polite terms.
We read Scriptures like James 4:2b “You do not have because you do not ask.” Then wonder why, when we asked it seems that God said, “No.” Why tell us to ask then? I think the answer is in those chapters from Job, because as much as we can learn about God we will never know the whole story. Where were you when He was creating the world? Where were you when He set the patterns for day and night? Or created trees? Or decided to make some people lovely to look at and others hideous? Where were you when He created you?
God and God alone is responsible for the creation of…. Everything. We have the ability to question Him by His grace but we might not want to use it too much. Some questions are better left unspoken. The answer just might be, “Where were you?” And our answers to that are never going to be sufficient. Trust and obey, that’s our part and I, for one, would like to get better at doing just that.
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