When All We Can Ask is "Why, Lord?

My wife and I were watching a bit of television this evening when we received the news that my friend Evan's Resplendent Bride (as he lovingly referred to her) Danielle had gone to be with the Lord after a long, courageous battle with cancer. In that moment, it was as though the air had been sucked out of the room. As a minister of the gospel, death is no stranger to me--it kind of goes with the job--and I am always sobered by the passing of a human being, but a few of these occasions strike me particularly hard, and leave me asking the question we all ask at one time or another: "Why, Lord?"

Why did the Lord feel that it was necessary to take Danielle home? To those of us who know Evan, either personally or through social media, he and Danielle's marriage, while brief, was the kind of marriage we all desire, and Evan is my model for how to be a Christian husband. The deepest love and commitment was the DNA of their union, and they freely proclaimed that their marriage was built on Jesus Christ and Him alone. I have never known a couple so devoted to one another, and their marriage was the best example of the love of Christ for His church that I have ever seen. As a couple, they not only believed in the high calling of a biblical marriage--they lived it!

So why did this happen? Why did the Lord feel it was necessary to call Danielle home? With so many marriages failing, even Christian marriages, why would the Lord not want to keep this one around as an example and encouragement to others? Why would He take Evan's beloved bride--the wife of his youth, His gift to him? It just doesn't make any sense to me. 

My wife asked me how I was feeling. I didn't tell her the truth. 

The truth is, I'm feeling confused, extremely sad, and a little bit angry. I am also asking, "Why, Lord?"

What is the right response in a moment like this. As a Christian, how am I supposed to feel? Is it okay to be confused? Sad? Even a little bit angry? These are normal human emotions, and God is a big God...He can handle them. But always our big God calls us to bigger things, and so, as I sit here, my head swirling with Scripture and my heart crying out in prayer even as the tears fall, I am driven to the reality that, in the end, their can be only one response of the Christian to his God, no matter the circumstance:

Faith.

I freely admit that I do not understand why this has happened, but I know the God who is Lord over time, the One who has numbered our days and promises to sovereignly direct us through each one until we reach that final day. Of Him who so loves us and chose us before the foundations of the world, shall we accept only the good and not the bad. That was Job's question, and he asked it knowing full well what his answer was. It is the same answer that must be mine tonight, as I sit here in the dark. For the Christian the answer must be,"I accept both, for He is Lord of both."

If Jesus is to be Lord of our lives, then we must allow Him to be Lord over every area and event of our life, the good and the bad, the happy and the sorrowful. As children of God, we do not need to know the "why" to every thing that happens--we only need to know the Who by whose permission they occur. Part of learning to walk with the Lord Jesus through this messy, sin-affected life is learning to trust that He is God, and I am not. How desperately we need this perspective in those moments when all we can ask is, "Why, Lord?" Take courage, for He is seeing His purposes through, and they are perfect: perfect in plan and in execution. 

Our hearts break at times, and at moments the grief seems almost unbearable. But those moments are also precious opportunities for our spirits to soar as we finally open our clenched fists and say, "Okay, Lord. I belong to you. Your plan and purposes are so far greater then anything I could ever begin to imagine."

"Do with me as you will."