How Dare You, God!

Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!”

Many years ago, I had some close friends who seemed to have it all going their way. They had some kids, a couple of good jobs and a strong Christian marriage. One day, the wife was in a horrible traffic accident and had severe, life-threatening injuries. For a couple of weeks, the doctors didn’t know if she was going to survive. Once she started to improve, they told her husband that she would have some permanent disabilities including both mental and physical. The mental and emotional impact on him was tremendous. He kept up a brave front and everyone who saw and heard him listened to him tell of his faith in God and how he knew it was going to be alright.

A couple of years after her accident, her husband and I were talking about that time and the subsequent months and years. He said that while she was in the hospital, he would pace back and forth in their bedroom when the children were not home and yell at God, even cussing at God for the way their life had been changed. He said his anger at God was a mountain in his life and one that he had no interest in climbing. Eventually, he made his peace with God and turned the energy of his anger into helping his wife adapt to the changes in her life.

We normally think of God as the source of all of the good things that happen in our lives and the devil as the source of all of the bad. When the good comes our way, we are usually grateful and sometimes we even remember to thank God for what has come our way. When life takes an ugly turn, we turn our anger and pain into anger at God. We assume that He is punishing us or has just turned His back for the moment and has allowed something negative to attack our lives. It may be something as serious as what happened to my friends or even worse. It may be something that has a long term or short term impact. The one thing that is common is it has a tendency to happen when we don’t expect it and don’t want it. When that happens, our anger can boil to the surface and be directed directly at God. The quote above by David is also repeated in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark when describing the death of Jesus on the cross and their accounts of His last words. It was Jesus’ humanity, not His spiritual nature, that was crying out at that last moment. It was that humanity that was crying out in protest against the indignities that His body had suffered.

It is all too human on our part to get angry at God for the bad things that happen to us. Some people think that God is punishing us in some way for some past sin. Theologians tell us that this isn’t how God operates. Others get angry at God because they believe God should always be our protector and it is His job to make sure nothing bad ever happens. Bad things do happen and most of the time it is just random chance or bad luck. The good thing about it is that God doesn’t hold a grudge. He understands our anger and forgives us for it. Sometimes He uses our anger to direct us to take action that becomes a benefit to others. One example is the Amber Alert System which is activated when a child is missing. It was named after a little girl, Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1996. As a result of the efforts of her parents and others, the Amber Alert System has spread around the world.

Bad things do happen to good people. Not only is that a book title, it is also the truth. It is also inevitable. Bad things are going to happen to you and to me. The important thing to remember when that happens is to remember that God has not forsakened you or abandoned you; He is there for you to call on, to lean on, and to seek His help and comfort. It is up to you to ask. Don’t be surprised, though, if He anticipates your need and gives you the help you need even before you ask for it.