Recently, Stephen asked us the question ‘What is God like?’ Our view of God, A.W. Tozer said, is the most important thing about us, and C. S. Lewis once observed that the danger he faced was not that he might cease to believe in God, but that he might come to believe ‘such dreadful things about him’ because of the grief he was then experiencing. (‘A Grief Observed’) Grief and trials do that to us: they rock our foundations and make us question all we believe about God. They can erod our confidence in the goodness of God, causing us to question either His motives or His ability, or both.
Novels like ‘The Shack’ (which has recently been released as a film) attempt to tackle these difficult questions, showing us how easily sadness and grief, especially when caused by violence or terrorism, can cause us to doubt God’s nature. The Bible teaches us facts about God which appear to us to be contradictory: that God is both just and merciful, for example. We struggle with these ideas, wrestling with our limited understanding and assuming ultimately that what we know of God can be derived from our own experiences of Him.
Our knowledge of God, however, has to be based on more than our limited understanding and personal experience. The revelation of God through Jesus Christ gives us a fuller picture of God than was known in the Old Testament, but even so, we must learn to live with mystery. God is all-knowing, all-wise, all-just, all-powerful; the Bible constantly reaffirms that He is love and He is good. This is the correcting lens to tragedy, pain, bewilderment and anguish. We squint in the light, trying to see clearly; in the dark, we cannot see at all. But in all circumstances, we are called to walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Cor 5:7) What we believe matters as well as that we believe.
