Why? Why? Why?

“Life is hard and full of deep valleys that we walk, run, or even limp through to the best of our ability. Sometimes we simply don’t know why we’re there. Sometimes we don’t know why stinky things happen. Sometimes we don’t know why God doesn’t show up, why our prayers don’t get answered, or why he doesn’t fix our problem.

“Sometimes a surrender is necessary for us to continue in faith … By admitting that we don’t understand everything and by simply trusting God that somehow in some way, and at some time, everything that has happened or is happening in our lives is going to come together for a good purpose.” (A.J. Gregory in Silent Savior, Revell, 2009)

The Message says it well, “We can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good” (Romans 8:28).

This kind of faith is just plain hard to maintain when our life, the evening news, the events swirling around us keep calling out “WHY?” And those of us who by calling or choice are writers, reporter-types, seem to be born with a higher than natural dose of “need to know.”

Haven’t we all wanted to ask: “Where is God at a time like this?”

We asked it after 9/11; we ask it today as we sit glued to the news of the tens of thousands of people lost in the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan; we’ve asked it this last year as too many friends and loved ones were taken from us too soon; and I ask it tonight after learning the brilliant young Assembly of God pastor and Bible teacher died of the horrible ALS disease.

Frederick Buechner wrote vividly expressing our doubts: “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”

“No matter where we are in our individual journeys of faith, the Voice in our soul continues to call us to move out, to go deeper, to explore further, to widen our horizons — to move, ultimately, into a more intimate relationship with God.” (Penelope Stokes in Faith: The Substance of Things Unseen, Tyndale, 1995).

And so it is during this season of Lent 2011, I have chosen to create times of solitude and study “faith” – as much to articulate it for myself as to try and help anyone else understand it. For who can improve on Hebrews 11:1: “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see” (The Message).

Eugene Peterson reminds us: “Our main and central task is to live in responsive obedience to God’s action revealed in Jesus. Our part in the action is the act of faith.”

Running From The Loneliness

No abundance of friends, no number of different marriages, no quantity of moves to new cities can ever take the loneliness away.

"Jesus experienced the loneliness of being misunderstood immediately after giving a series of discourses regarding his identity. He had explained that he was the bread of life, the source of living water, and the light of the world. In addition to all this teaching, Jesus had lived among the people, walked their roads, healed their sick, and fed their hungry. But even after all this, the people still asked him, 'Who are you?'" -- M. Craig Barnes (Sacred Thirst)

"Each of us has a deep-seated need to be significant, unique, connected, and enjoying a powerful relationship with God that is relevant to our everyday life. We have an unquenched hunger to understand and to be understood. ... Loneliness disguised as incompatibility and generated from failing to be understood is the enemy of many marriages. The pain of having no one with similar beliefs, convictions, and choices of recreation leaves both spouses feeling isolated." -- John D. Carlson (Passion for His Presence--Entering His Gates)

Mother Terresa said it well: "Suffering, pain, sorrow, humiliation, feelings of loneliness, are nothing but the kiss of Jesus."

It is our loneliness, our "suffering that so often causes us to see our need. It is our suffering that makes us cry out to God." -- Charles Ringma (Wash the Feet of the World)

"God has not forgotten about our dark nights of restless sorrow. Only when we discover God in the darkest moments of life will we believe that he can and will make the sun finally rise and the new day dawn.

To stand alone in the presence of God is to stand in a place of transformation. There our lonely hearts are reformed and transformed with deep emotions such as joy, love, and compassion for those around us.

It is only in solitude with God that we discover the sufficiency of a God who also yearns for us--so much so that in Jesus Christ he came looking for us.

So instead of running from the loneliness, stay with it. Stare it straight in the eye, and turn it into a prayer of confession. It is the only way to hear the word of the Lord: I HAVE NOT LEFT YOU ALONE." -- M. Craig Barnes (emphasis mine)

Loneliness drives us to aloneness. Aloneness drives us to solitude.

Henri Nouwen reminds us, "Solitude is the way in which we grow into the realization that where we are most alone, we are most loved by God. It is a quality of heart, an inner quality that helps us to accept our aloneness lovingly, as a gift from God."

The Heart can only be satisfied by the One who created it. The yearning is for God.