by Ramesh  Richard

(A shortened version of this article appeared in Jan. ’95 Decision Magazine)

Sandra lost her two-year-old son a few months before her husband was diagnosed as dying with cancer. She wonders, “Does God know what is happening in my life?”

The family of an Indian pastor brutally butchered for the gospel asks in their abandonment, “Where is God during this time of our lives?” Michael had his engagement break off twice in the last six months and is puzzled about what the future holds. “Could God get my fiancée to go through with this marriage?”

Different stanzas to the same ballad, they ask, “Does God play a direct role in the details of my life?” Most of us easily accept the hand of God in blessing. But, it is far more difficult to see God’s hand in adversity. My family is presently praying for four terminally ill loved ones who may not be alive when this article comes out. They are asking the same question in their own ways, “Why does God seem so silent in the details of my life?”

As I pursue this most honesty question through the metaphor of an ocean journey, meet me at each port of call with your grief in one hand and your Bible in another. We will ask concerning God’s knowledge of our circumstances, God’s presence in our grief, and God’s ability and desire to intervene in our lives.

Part 1: Is God aware?

Grieving over the death of his only son, Harold concluded that God was only aware of the big issues of the universe. The small issues were left for us to handle. However, a God who is not aware of the details is not a good candidate for godhood or worship. The Bible claims that the Christian God is very aware of the details of your life. How much more detailed can you get than the number of hairs on your head? (Matt. 10:30) He keeps count of that number. He is a God of the details, even the details we cannot see and especially the ones we cannot understand.

Now, it is not just that God is aware of your difficulties. The Bible says that God has not forgotten you. My preacher father has a beautiful observation on God’s detail work. Two sparrows are sold for a penny in Matthew 10:29, and five sparrows are sold for two pennies in Luke 12:6. “God,” my dad would remind us, “is the God of the odd sparrow, the fifth sparrow, the bonus sparrow.” Yet Jesus said “not one of them is forgotten by God,” (Luke); “not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your father.” (Matthew)

God takes exception to His people who think or feel that present distress displays God’s ignorance and forgetfulness. Hear an anchor theme in the middle of your storm. “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast…? Thought she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands….” (Isa. 49:15-16). What is God saying in these Scriptures? “You may feel that I am not aware of your circumstances; but you cannot trust that sentiment. I am a hair-numbering, sparrow-counting, hand-engraving, God of the details.” God is aware. Don’t mistake His silence to be ignorance.

Part 2: Is God there?

Start up the boat and head for the next stop in our spiritual exploration of the riddles in life. It is certainly not enough to know that God is aware of the details. We also want to know that He is there with us in these details. Our first question relates to God’s ignorance. This question relates to God’s absence. Has God become too busy with problems much bigger than the ones I have? Why is he not here? Why can’t I see him?

These questions are legitimate and sincere. Our problems are so large and so close that our focus is on them. We also deal with an invisible God whom we can’t see. We seem to have no tangible proof of His presence. Having to choose between the problems that we see and a God whom we don’t see, we question His presence with us in the details of our lives.

Open your Bible palm now. Consider the affirmations of the Bible about God’s presence with you. The unequivocal declaration of the Jesus who never changes is, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Heb. 13:5, 8, NASB). “I am with you” and “I go with you” are consistent refrains in the Old Testament (Gen. 26:24; 28:15; Deut. 31:6; Josh. 1:5; Isa. 41:10; 43:2). The sheer number of times that He assures His people of His presence compels us to include His presence pas part of our total perspective on present reality.

Nutan, a Fijian Indian brother, has not had an easy life. His life reveals a menu of grief. His father died while he was still young. His brother was killed in a collision. Another car wreck sent a younger brother into a lengthy coma and a three-year depression. Soon after, the brother’s wife died in a traffic accident. Within his culture, the entire responsibility of his extended family fell to him. Nutan’s inflection on this sordid series of untimely deaths is a biblical confidence. “God was there, man,” he told me. “He was there the whole time.”

Would you anchor your bruised boat on this theme too? “God is there, my friend. He is there the whole time.” Don’t confuse His silence to be absence.

We now come to the last stop before the final destination. We find that God is not only a God of details and a God in details; He is a God who cares so much that he works all details to accomplish His purposes.

Part 3: Does God care?

Does God care, and how do I know that He cares? Often, I am willing to believe that He is aware and is there, but I have no solid way to interpret His inaction. If He is not plagued by inertia, perhaps He is just impotent. Is there a good explanation why an omniscient and loving God wouldn’t intervene unless He is also powerless? Alas, I am having to choose between staying in the boat and drowning, or jumping out and drowning. All my options seem to be ineffective and my boat is being battered. Does God care enough to use His almighty power to obliterate the obstacles that I face? His promises seem to be empty.

Please be seated, my friend. Let’s examine your questions with an open Bible again. These are difficult issues. Philosophical theology has discussed these questions for millennia. Only the beginnings of an answer are available, but they are adequate.

First, God cares for creation, history, all people together, but especially for you individually. God knows individuals (Jer. 1:5), selects them for salvation and adoption (Eph. 1), and plans their days before they exist (Psa. 139:16). God was involved with you prenatally. You are a special conception and a unique creation (Psa. 139:13; cf. Isa. 44:2). Since He put you together, He is deeply involved in your earthly existence. Plainly, the Bible says, “He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Other “care” ideas in Scripture include being caught, covered, and carried by God in this life. He is able to provide for your needs (Phil. 4:19) and guide you (Col. 1:9,10).

Second, God cares for you enough to guide you in the middle of life’s most demanding situations. While He may not remove you from the situation, He will guide you in every such situation until your last day (Psa. 48:14). His Scriptures will guide you when you walk, will watch over while you sleep, will speak to you when you are awake (Prov. 6:22). Our responsibility is to pray that God will show us His way, guide us in His truth, and teach us His paths (Psa. 25:5).

Third, ask God specifically, urgently, and expectantly to intervene in your life. Don’t give up on God for HE hasn’t given up on you. If God still doesn’t choose to intervene in the way you want Him to, it is not because He doesn’t care. It is because He wants you to care about what He cares about. Paul’s struggle with the thorn in his flesh is a reminder of this truth (2 Cor. 12:7-10). He did not doubt God’s ability to remove this thorn. Neither should we. He asked specifically, urgently and expectantly for his thorn to be removed. So should we. But Paul became content with God’s answer in this situation (v. 10). Your contentment is circumstantial difficulties is as much an evidence of the power of God as would be His extraordinary intervention.

Fourth, we need to rethink the basis for our disappointment with God’s lack of performance in our lives. Pragmatic people that we are, we evaluate God on how well He delivers for us. As utilitarians, we measure God by His performance with us. We forget who answers to whom.  We also place conditions on when He delivers. We believe in action on demand, now and immediately. We forget God is on His own timetable, not ours. Caught in an experimental mindset, we judge the truths of God by experimentation with Him. Only, sometimes He does what we want, while at other times He is silent, befuddling us. We are also heavily oriented to modern “entitlement” concepts. We think we have the right to dictate how good our circumstances should be and are rather disappointed when we don’t get what we believe as basic rights to happiness. The platform for these errant thoughts is egocentric. I prescribe how God relates to me, only to soon find out that God is not a giant pizza delivery service or a customer service department. Perhaps, some of our frustration would diminish if we did not see God lying in wait to meet our standards and exceed our expectations of Him in this early existence.

Fifth, God’s pursues a long-range, Kingdom strategy in every situation. He is very interested in shaping you into His model for spiritual excellence, Jesus Christ. God takes your circumstance and works out the details according to this long-range, Kingdom-purpose, inner-quality orientation. We cannot overlook the clear claim of Romans 8:28. God actively causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose (NASB). Paul claims that Christians already know that truth. An impotent God could not cause all things to work together for the good of His children. It takes omnipotence to do that! Don’t misconstrue His silence to be His impotence.

Long-Range Kingdom Navigation

So, we only know the edges of God’s ways in specific human experience. But Scripture is most encouraging in this regard. Joseph’s testimony, after a long history with a dysfunctional family, betrayal, false accusation, and imprisonment, is “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). I cannot give an emotionally satisfying answer to the family of the Indian pastor who was brutally martyred; however, the hundreds who have been converted to Christ by the way he died form the beginnings of the answer. If Stephen had not died, would Saul have become Paul? God taking away Naomi’s husband and son in ten short years is not fully explainable during her bitter sorrow. However, the long-range, Kingdom purpose of Ruth being Christ’s forbear begins to yield meaning eventually (Ruth 4 and Matt. 1).

Our Ryan, when 8, got in trouble with his mother. She overheard his grief as he lay on his stomach, hugged his pillow and bellowed, “Daddy, Daddy, I need somebody to care for me. I need Daddy right now.” Away on an overseas trip, I was ignorant of his trouble, absent in his circumstance, and impotent to do anything for him. When you cry asking for God to intervene in your details right now, you may face His silence. But I am glad to confirm that in God’s case, His silence doesn’t mean ignorance, absence, or impotence. He is aware, He is there, and He does care.

It is time to move on in life’s journey. When you are immobilized, abandon yourself on truths that are just as true and real as your circumstance: God is aware, He is there, and He cares. God actively works out all the details of your life for your good and His purpose. When we arrive at the final destination, the boat will no longer sway nor swagger. You will look behind and say, “Ah, I see!” And you will fall on your face at the feet of an almighty, loving God who permitted evil and promoted good while providentially working evil and good for the best.