What Do You Know?

Think about the way Job responded to devastating circumstances. Talk about having your life fall apart! Job lost seven sons and three daughters in one unimaginable day. And that was in addition to losing all his possessions and his health. But what did Job do? The Bible says he did not charge God foolishly (see Job 1:22, KJV). Instead, he cried out to the Lord.

In fairness, Job did go on to question God in the days to come, in effect asking, "Lord, why?" There’s nothing wrong with asking God why, as long as you don’t get the idea that He somehow owes you an answer. Frankly, God doesn’t owe you or me an explanation.

Concerning our recent tragedy I, too, have asked why? Why did this happen? Why couldn’t it have been me instead of Christopher? Why did the Lord take him? I have many such questions roiling in my heart.

Not long after Christopher’s passing, Pastor Chuck Smith made this statement to me: "Never trade what you don’t know for what you do know." Those words stopped me in my tracks a little. I asked myself, Well, what do I know for sure?

I know that God loves me.
I know that God loved and loves my son.
I know that God loves my family that remains with me.
I know that Christopher is well and alive in the best place he could ever be. I know that God can make good things come out of bad.
I know that we’ll all be together again—not so very long from now—on the Other Side.
I know those things. I’m as sure as I can be. So I’m making the choice to stand on what I know instead of what I don’t know.

So if you were to ask me, "Greg, why did this happen?" my answer would be, "I don’t know. And I don’t know that I will ever know. I just know that I need God more than I have ever needed Him in my life."