Last night at small group, a member shared about her falling away from faith. She painfully recalled a time in her life when she had pleaded with God to take away the pain and give her comfort, and yet received no response. God was silent and seemingly absent in her time of need. As she poured her heart out, my heart ached as I found myself at a loss for words. I can do well enough for myself by recalling Job's story or even recounting the torturous darknesss and abandonment that Mother Theresa once endured. But how, I wondered, could I answer one who had lost her faith? How do you make sense of suffering to someone that scarcely believes that there is a God anymore, much less believe that he is all good and all-loving and intimately involved in our lives?

It was then that it occurred to me that there were no words that could touch her heart, except for those blessed by God. The most elegant prose could fail to even touch her on the basest level. And yet the simplest of words, if only with God's blessing, could have brought her running back into the Father's arms. And that threw me into an even deeper turmoil than before. I didn't just begin to wonder about this one precious life, but about the multitude of lives. I wondered why the soil was so rocky, the sun so fierce, and the weeds so numerous where the gospel seed is so plentiful? And why also, where the soil good and the trees fruitful is the gospel is so rare and precious? But those questions only brought me full circle once again. I longed to learn God's marvelous purpose. I wanted to know why. But he doesn't owe that answer to me. He doesn't owe anything to me. God has proven faithful and true, even and especially when I haven't. Why should I doubt him now?

Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:



"Who is this that darkens my counsel


with words without knowledge?
Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,


and you shall answer me.
"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?


Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!


Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,


or who laid its cornerstone-
while the morning stars sang together


and all the angels shouted for joy?
"Who shut up the sea behind doors


when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment


and wrapped it in thick darkness,
when I fixed limits for it


and set its doors and bars in place,
when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther;


here is where your proud waves halt'?
"Have you ever given orders to the morning,


or shown the dawn its place,
that it might take the earth by the edges


and shake the wicked out of it?
The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;


its features stand out like those of a garment.
The wicked are denied their light,
and their upraised arm is broken.
"Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea


or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been shown to you?


Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?


Tell me, if you know all this.
"What is the way to the abode of light?


And where does darkness reside?
Can you take them to their places?


Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
Surely you know, for you were already born!


You have lived so many years!
"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow


or seen the storehouses of the hail,
which I reserve for times of trouble,


for days of war and battle?


What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,


or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,


and a path for the thunderstorm,
to water a land where no man lives,


a desert with no one in it,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland


and make it sprout with grass?
Does the rain have a father?


Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?


Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,


when the surface of the deep is frozen?


"Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?


Can you loose the cords of Orion?
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons


or lead out the Bear with its cubs?


Do you know the laws of the heavens?


Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?
"Can you raise your voice to the clouds


and cover yourself with a flood of water?
Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?


Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?
Who endowed the heart with wisdom


or gave understanding to the mind?
Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?


Who can tip over the water jars of the heaven?
when the dust becomes hard


and the clods of earth stick together?
"Do you hunt the prey for the lioness


and satisfy the hunger of the lions
when they crouch in their dens


or lie in wait in a thicket?


Who provides food for the raven


when its young cry out to God


and wander about for lack of food?


-Job 38