Unanswered Questions

Ipray4u Christian Bookstore

Guest Blog

by

Dr. Lonnie Robinson

I am reading a book titled In a PIT with a LION on a SNOWY DAY, which is written by a young pastor named Mark Batterson. It was suggested to me by a friend who has been through some trials in his life recently. It is based on a passage of scripture in 2 Samuel 23 about a man named Benaiah and how he handled adversity in a very different way than most of us would. I highly recommend it.

I would like to share a passage with you entitled “Unanswered Questions”.

Not long ago, my daughter Summer asked a question out of nowhere: “Dad, why did God create mosquitoes?” That’s a tough question. I made up some lame answer like, “Lizards eat them.” But to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure why God made mosquitoes. I don’t like them. I don’t lose sleep over it, but I think it’s one of those unanswerable questions. By the way, Summer also said, “I’ve been saving that question for God for two years.”

We all have questions we’ve been saving for God, don’t we?

And most of them aren’t as benign as “Why did God make mosquitoes?” We have malignant questions that metastasize. How could God let my spouse leave me like that? Why is my child the one in ten thousand with a rare genetic disorder? Why didn’t someone do something to stop the abuse?

Positive uncertainties produce some of the most joyful moments in life, but I don’t want to make light of the negative uncertainties. They are painful and stressful.

Maybe you’re facing the relational uncertainty of divorce. Maybe downsizing at work is causing some occupational uncertainty. Or maybe you have lots of unanswered questions that are causing some spiritual uncertainty. Someday God will answer all of our malignant questions. Someday God will explain all our painful experiences. Someday God will resolve all our spiritual paradoxes. In the meantime, I have a Deuteronomy 29:29 file filled with things I don’t understand.

There are secrets the Lord God has not revealed to us.

…One of my unanswered questions is why my father-in-law, Bob, passed away in the prime of his life. Not only did we lose a dad, but I also lost my mentor in ministry. I wouldn’t be doing what I ‘m doing if it weren’t for his influence in my life…

…In January of 1998, Bob went in for a routine physical. The doctor didn’t just give him a clean bill of health; he literally said you could drive a Mack truck through his arteries. One week later, he died of a heart attack. And I remember two distinct feelings. I remember feeling helpless. There was nothing I could do to bring him back. And I remember feeling overwhelmed. You almost go into a state of shock because you experience emotional overload. The grief is consuming. If you have lost a loved one, you know the feeling. During the funeral, I realized that I couldn’t stop sighing. I later read that sighing is one way we process grief. It is a physiological response to distress. I didn’t know how to vent or verbalize what I was feeling, so I sighed.

Give ear to my words, O Lord, and consider my sighing.

That little phrase – “consider my sighing” – became a source of strength for me. I didn’t know how to pray or what to say, but I knew God was considering my sighing. Even when we can’t put our frustration or anger or doubt or discouragement or grief into words, God hears and translates those low-frequency distress signals we call sighs.

Maybe prayer is much more than a combination of the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet into words? I love Ted Loder’s perspective in Guerrillas of Grace:

How Shall I pray?

Are tears prayers, Lord?

Are screams prayers,

or groans

or sighs

or curses?

Can trembling hands be lifted to you,

or clenched fists

or the cold sweat that trickles down my back

or the cramps that knot my stomach?

Will you accept my prayers, Lord,

my real prayers,

rooted in the muck and mud and rock of my life,

And not just the pretty, cut-flower, gracefully arranged

bouquet of words?

Will you accept me, Lord,

as I really am,

messed up mixture of glory and grime?

Sometimes it feels like God isn’t listening but He considers every sigh. Not only that, he is interceding for us day and night. Scripture says that God makes prayers out of our wordless sighs and aching groans.

The Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don’t even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

Here is an incredible thought: Long before you woke up this morning, the Holy Spirit was interceding for you. And long after you go to bed tonight, the Holy Spirit will still be interceding for you. That ought to change the way we wake up and fall asleep…

Reading this made me feel normal again, as if someone understood and validated what I am going through. I hope it does the same for you.

Blessings,

Lonnie