Psalm 31

For the director of music. A psalm of David.

¹ In you, Lord, I have taken refuge;
    let me never be put to shame;
    deliver me in your righteousness.
² Turn your ear to me,
    come quickly to my rescue;
be my rock of refuge,
    a strong fortress to save me.

Dear God, I was talking with a relative yesterday, and she was recounting a conversation she had recently had with a friend. The friend was telling her about a lot of therapy work she’d been doing over the last year and uncovering and dealing with a lot of childhood trauma. Ultimately, she told my relative something to the effect that she didn’t believe in you anymore because she didn’t know why you don’t stop things like that. How can a good God allow so much pain?

It’s an age-old question. Job asked it. His friends errantly told him that his suffering was a result of his sin, and he rejected that explanation. But he fussed at you. He demanded you answer him and explain yourself. Funny, how I keep coming back to the whole thing about people expecting you to explain yourself to them. It’s starting to reveal itself as a theme during these Lenten journals. C.S. Lewis wrote a whole book about it called The Problem of Pain. I think it’s something we all struggle to answer because we want to be a good and loving God would never allow such things.

So what was my answer to my relative? Well, I hope it was okay. I simply said that one question to ask her friend is what she would have you do. How would she like for God to respond to pain in the world? Should you kill bad actors? Should you stop all natural disasters? If this were a Bruce Almighty situation and she had your power for a day, how would she use it? And once you decide to start killing bad actors who do the worst of crimes, where do you draw the line and what are the limits? I guess the ultimate question would be, why did you create any of this at all? Why did you create us just to have us suffer?

Sister Miriam had a nice paragraph today in her book Restore: A Guided Lent Journal for Prayer and Meditation. She said, “As painful as life has been for us in moments, God is not our enemy. God is only good and offers goodness. He understands our pain and sorrow, our anger and rage. He is not afraid of it, disgusted by it, or deterred by it.” I like that.

Father, help me to represent you well today. Help me to show everyone around me how good you are. Help me to offer reconciliation with you to them. It starts with my own heart loving you well, worshipping you, and being wholly yours. So, I offer myself to you today. I am yours. This day is not about me or what I can get out of the day. It’s about what I can give to this day. Help me to offer you as a refuge for those who are scared and hurting. Help me to remind others who worship you of how good you are. Use me, Father. I’m here to offer myself to you as best as I know how.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen