Faith in the Face of Trials

I love it when God hits you over the head with a point. I had two interviews this week that dealt with the same subject, the subject that a lot of people are dealing with these days: why bad things happen. It’s a tough time and it’s a common question without an easy answer. I’m not going to try to tackle the whole topic of theodicy here, but I would like to share some of the similarities in what the two men I talked to said.

The first was Marc Gonsalves, the man who was held captive in the jungles of Colombia for 5-1/2 years. You can read about his whole story in this week’s issue, but the most amazing part for me was the fact that his faith was saved through this horrible experience. Before all of this happened he wasn’t even a practicing Christian, but because of his confinement and the fact that God provided a Bible for him, he rediscovered his faith and relied on God to get him through the truly horrifying situations he was put in. He wasn’t bitter at God for allowing his plane to crash land right in the middle of a rebel terrorist camp; he was amazed at how God used the situation for his good. Instead of blaming God, he was thankful.

The same subject came up a few days later while talking with Brian Zahnd, pastor of Word of Life Church in Missouri and author of What to Do on the Worst Day of Your Life. The book tells the story of David’s worst day in the Bible, when David and his men found their village burned, their crops and flocks destroyed, and their wives and children taken prisoner by the Amalekites. Zahnd uses this story from David’s life as a template for what happens to us on the worst days of our lives. In the end, God gave David and his men back everything they had lost, and actually increased their blessings. Zahnd actually wrote the original form of the book in 1997, and it was never fully published until last week, when it would touch a lot more people than normal. He sees God’s hand in that.

Obviously every bad situation doesn’t turn out the same. Some tragedies cannot be recovered. But we know from Romans 8:28 that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (NIV). God will never leave us, He will always be there for us, and that is a promise to rest on in tough times like these.