I will never forget the morning of March 24, 1986. I was 15 years old. My dad’s best friend woke me up and took me outside. I wasn’t sure what was going on. But it took me to the backyard and then told me that my dad had died. I was in shock. I had just talked to him the night before. He is getting prepared to go to the West Coast for a bone marrow transplant to fight the leukemia that he was battling. All seemed well. And then he was gone. That was a very pivotable moment in my life. One that I did not handle very well. The decisions I made for the next few years show that. I look back at that time, and I struggled tremendously trying to deal with him being gone. I didn’t know it then. But, I can see it now. It’s very fitting for what we have been talking about lately. With the struggles that several people that we know have been going through. In essence, people wonder why is it that God allows bad things to happen to good people. Cancer. Heartache. Disasters. Death. Why do these happen? Why do we go through moments like this? Where is God during these moments?
These are real thoughts people have. They are questions people have for God. And I bet if we’re honest, they are questions many of us have ACTUALLY asked God. Why this? Why that? It’s human nature to want to know why. I remember when the tornado hit Joplin, I was interviewing people who had been in the middle of it. One of them was a manager of a local store. Had people around him die. Another guy I interviewed lost his son. They were together on their way home from his son’s high school graduation. The young man was literally pulled out of the driver’s seat and died. During the interviews, I asked both of these individuals, “Where was God during the storm?” Actually, I asked this of everyone I interviewed. Their answers amazed me.
The store manager told me that it’s not our place to question that. Questioning death is not for us to do. God‘s plan will be revealed. If anything, he said it made him closer to God. One reason was he believed that he needed to seek God more often. Another reason was because, hundreds around him survived. The father’s answer was even more amazing. He told me that God was there and allowed him to hand his son over to him. Read that again! He allowed him to hand his son over to him. Very powerful. I have been asked if God is such a loving God, why did he paralyze you? Why hasn’t he healed you? Why does he let you struggle each day being paralyzed? My answer is simple. He didn’t paralyze me. I did. My lifestyle did that. My decision that night did that. Our loving God kept me alive. And now, he uses me daily in this chair, more than he would have out of it. Why did my dad die? Why did he have a disease? Here’s what I know. God didn’t kill my dad. Leukemia did. And I turned away from him. Not intentionally. But I did. And what’s amazing is this, God never left me. He was always there waiting for me. It’s in questioning times that we have to stand on what the truth is about God. If we do so, we will be stronger on the other side of the struggles we go through. The tough times we go through. And let’s remember this as well: God loves us. He always has. He always will.
