Trees snap. Rooftops sail through the air. Cars tumble. Walls collapse. Water engulfs the land. A hurricane tears the shore asunder. An earthquake swallows cities. Terrorists threaten civilizations. Epidemics devastate countries.
We will be tested. Our lives filled with prestige, power and possessions can suddenly be assaulted. Through no fault of our own we can lose everything.
When we suffer loss our utmost trial may not be pain and misery, but, instead, our supreme challenge may come from trying to understand why God allowed us to suffer.
Leslie D. Weatherhead, a pastor in London during World War II, wrote The Will of God to help people deal with the tragedy of war. His ideas remain worth considering today.
Weatherhead conceived a three-tiered will of God:
- God’s intentional will—that all of us would love and glorify Him; that we would all put God first in our lives.
- God’s circumstantial will—what God would want us to do if evil thwarts God’s intentional will.
- God’s ultimate will—the redemption of man; man returns to loving God despite tragedy and hardship.
Until tragedy strikes, we think we have all the answers. In reality, our understanding of things great and small becomes insignificant the more we learn.
Only God knows exactly why things happen as they do.
God, omnipotent and omniscient, may act in ways that we fail to understand.
Human wisdom is always partial and temporary, but when we trust God, we will prevail. God has given us a spirit capable of compassion, sacrifice and endurance.
Our lives can be divided into four seasons: Flowering spring; summer’s ardent strength; somber autumn fading into age; pale, concluding winter.
When winter shuts the scene on our earthly lives or when disaster strikes, we have the promise of eternal life when we trust in God’s omnipotence.