The CHRISTIANing Podcast

Ep.68 - When You Want to Know Why

Kirk Scott

If you have been a Christian for longer than 5 minutes you have asked the question, "Why?"  One of the big challenges of our faith is reconciling very big sweeping biblical declarations about God and His character with the reality of our difficult circumstances in this fallen world.  It seems as if every conclusion we draw from reading our Bibles sets up a different "why" question each time.  In this episode, we will take a deeper look at the motivations behind asking the "why" questions and the potential pitfalls that await if we aren't careful.  In scripture Job asked God repeatedly, "why," and I don't think he could have ever imagined or predicted God's answer.  Let's take a look!    

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right, and welcome back everyone to another episode of the Christianing podcast. As always, thank you for tuning in, downloading, joining us today as we do kind of a typical, typical Christianing podcast episode. I hope you've been enjoying the wisdom talks that I've been throwing up there. Again, I jump on wisdom about once, maybe twice a week if I have time, if I have a good question to throw out to the live audience. It's been fun to kind of get some live feedback, see where real people are sitting on some of these culturally relevant questions. I hope you enjoyed the last episode about what should Christians do about Donald Trump. Had some good responses. Again, as you can tell, listening to those episodes, it is a mixed bag. I can't predict what we're going to get from an audience response, but if I get some engaging ones, I'll definitely throw them up here on the podcast so that you guys can just... Get them outside of wisdom. And then there's been some duds. Like I said, it's hard to predict what's going to happen. So the duds, I just leave there on wisdom. And so you can jump in the episode notes always and follow Christianing Podcast on wisdom. They have a cool little feature where you can ask an anonymous question and get a one-minute audio response. So if you ever have a question when you're listening, like, I wonder about something that we're talking about. Send me the question. It only gives me 60 seconds to respond, but at least I can get the question a good start. I've had some good ones, and it's always good for me to sort those questions through my head and come up with a very concise, brief approach to the question to at least get us started. But it's just... All this is way, way more engaging if it's interactive. So jump on and enjoy. Today, we've got an episode that's just been kind of sitting in my mind for the past couple weeks. So we're going to talk about Christianing when you want to know why. And I don't know what it was, but Like a month or so ago, I'm sure I was walking with somebody I knew, walking through some why questions. You know, it happens to all of us. It's a very natural human question. Why? Why do these things happen? Especially when you're trying to understand God, you're trying to understand faith. And I was just recently, I was reminded of a student that I used to teach who walked away from the faith because He didn't have a suitable why answer to you walk through some tough stuff, the death of his mother. That stuff ain't easy. And that's when some of those whys really come up. So again, none of the content of this episode is to excoriate or belittle people that are asking these why questions. Because like I said, it comes out of us. It pops in our head. However, I'm just kind of looking at scripture. There are some things that I think can really help us when we're in these moments. But again, back to my student, he walked away from the faith because he wasn't able to get a suitable answer to why. And then he came back to the faith because he found what he thought was a suitable question to the answer why. A couple of years later, somebody brought him a perspective that he never thought of before. And So you would think, wow, that's really great. Back in the faith. But what became kind of clear to me is the faith wasn't so much in the God of the Bible, but the faith was in the human answer to the question. And what do I mean by that? That's what we'll kind of get into this episode. But that's really the thing that popped in my head and my heart as far as what's... What can be dangerous about asking the question why? And we wanna make sure always that when we're trying to understand God, it's God that we arrive at, that he's the final destination. And because of our kind of sinful flesh, there's so many other places that we can go with things. So in particular, This question why, and we've all, like I said, we've all asked it in a variety of different contexts and a variety of different situations. But why, the question why I think is a uniquely challenging question. Not just the fact that it's hard to find answers, but it's uniquely challenging in the path that it takes you down. You know, the who, what question. when, where, how, those questions kind of stay on a different path. When you go to why, you're going to a much, much different place. So I think there's just some things that the Bible helps us kind of understand when we find ourselves in that position. Again, not wrong to be in that position. And these why questions, there are some great rational questions explanations that would make biblical sense. And so I'm not against finding those rational biblical answers as long as you're able to put them in a proper context. So that's what we're going to walk through today, talk about how to Christian well when you want to know why, when you go to God, shake the fist, why God? Why is this happening? Why do these things happen? It's important. So one thing that we need to understand is that the Enlightenment, this kind of period of scientific revelation and scientific just, you know, the world goes from flat to round based on scientific observation and our increased ability as human species to and increased technology and things to to discover things about the human body, to discover things about the world around us, this kind of boom of what's called the Enlightenment period. That had, if you've done any sort of church history study, any sort of history study at all, you know that the Enlightenment has had a huge impact on global culture, specifically at religion as well, as kind of spiritual, mystical, supernatural faith was... the the only way to answer some of the the more challenging questions about life and and what's beyond and big picture questions you know so for most of human history those questions were answered through the spiritual mystical religious religious framework and then the enlightenment happens and we start to learn uh some very tangible observable things about our world and that we label scientific fact. And then the enlightenment has a huge impact on religion as a whole, as people are able to answer questions through science and religion isn't unnecessary so much in that regard anymore, that the enlightenment really kind of led this secular revolution that we're experiencing today. So that's kind of the general understanding of the Enlightenment's impact on faith as a whole, is now we have to reconcile our faith claims through an Enlightenment scientific lens. And so that is kind of the debate that happens out there today as far as evolution versus creation, these kind of age-old things. big picture questions that were just readily society would just accept through the lens of of spiritual faith now you have to you have to kind of take these biblical claims and you know other cultural religious claims and you have to sift them through the lens of enlightenment science but So that's kind of the big picture enlightenment impact, but there is an overlooked internal impact on the faith that I believe it's overlooked. It doesn't get a lot of airtime when we're talking about the enlightenment. And like we said, the external impact... has been people leaving supernatural faith for faith in natural explanation to life's questions. That's been kind of where we spend a lot of time studying and trying to understand church history, things and how to, you know, as faith leaders, how to combat that. But there's been an internal impact of this kind of enlightenment as it's really shaped both the secular and the Christian mind. Christians now, The internal impact of the Enlightenment, what I found is Christians not adopting convictions of the faith without satisfactory explanations. So that's kind of been the overlooked, unseen internal impact that we are now as Christians on this endless quest for answers. This... And the answers have to be provided. And they have to be provided in a satisfactory way for us to hold firm to biblical, supernatural, spiritual convictions. And this is kind of what I've seen. As you guys know, my background is Christian education. So this starts... and earnest in the youth as kids are just curious. They just want to know. They want to know why, why, why, why. And like I said, as you're growing up, there's an innocence to that. But then that gets validated through this kind of enlightenment lens as an adult to where if I can't find a satisfactory answer to this question, This conviction that maybe the Bible is kind of purporting or this faith leader is purporting, I'll shelf it. It will not be a part of my faith framework until I get the why question answered. And so that's this kind of impact that I've been noticing through Christian faith is, As long as I've been alive and in the real conversations I've been having with people trying to develop their faith, grow up in their faith, there's just good biblical meat that's just... If I, as the teacher, can't adequately articulate a reasonable answer to all these questions, then that means that this claim... does not need to be accepted. So that can be a problem. That can be a problem as we're going to find out clearly in the word as we dive into our word of the day. So we're going to go to the book of Job and we don't have the time, but if we had the time, we'd just read the whole book because Job is just a master class in really understanding This enlightenment predicament that we're in, as you guys know the story of Job, you guys know the situation the Lord put him in. There's so many things the book of Job touches from the sovereignty of God to the relationship of God and evil and sin. the problem of evil and all these kind of apologetic things. And the book of Job just dives straight into it as far as what is wise counsel in the face of really challenging circumstances. And so we know that these horrible circumstances happen to Job and he's living through the realities of these and he's having to reconcile in his mind what's happening to him in light of what the Bible very clearly declares, the convictions of Job, his faith, his faith in God Almighty, and his righteous living that was inspired by this faith. And so this lifestyle that he'd been leading all of a sudden gets rocked, gets challenged by just the worst of all things. you know, kind of human circumstances. And so that's very early. That situation plays out in the early chapters of Job. And then the rest of it is just Job wrestling. And then friends that come in and think they're giving wise counsel and just chapter after chapter of Job's laments and complaints and his friends' responses and retorts to these things. And then finally God breaks in, in chapter 38. We get like 30 plus chapters of just this going back and forth, these human ideas, these human thoughts, and then God breaks through. So we're going to look at just a couple verses in Job 38. I would encourage you to read from Job 38 on through the rest of the book. all the way through 42, where you see God's clear, his full response to Job after he had just been seeing Job, hearing Job's cries, and then all of a sudden, boom, God breaks through. And man, I just, if there is the opposite of the kind of modern American enlightenment approach I need to understand why. Give me a satisfactory answer. If there is an opposite response to that, it would be the way God responds to Job. So we'll just read 11 verses just to give you a taste of it. And I encourage you to read all of it. And then we'll skip ahead to Job 42, where we see how God's response impacts Job. And then we're going to draw kind of four overall... four overall conclusions about what this all means how the book of job helps us understand the times when we're asking the question why and and desiring a response to the question why and so hopefully Be good stuff. Hopefully it'll help you a bunch. I know everybody here has a friend, has a relative, has someone who's struggling through the realities of this fallen sinful world and a sovereign God trying to understand how both can be existing at the same time. And hopefully this can help you lead and disciple others. Those folks, well, that's the goal here. So start with word of the day. Word of the day would be Job 38, and then we'll jump ahead to Job 42. This is where the Lord breaks through and finally speaks. He finally makes himself audibly known to Job as Job has been just struggling with the worst of human circumstances. Verse 1 says, Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, And here we go. This is the setup. If this were like modern American church, we'd be like, all right, I'm ready to take notes. God is here finally. I've been asking why, why, why, why, why? He's just going to lay out 15 points as to help me understand his role and his hand in my current circumstances. Here we go. Verse two. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? He's talking both, we find out later, he's talking both about Job and Job's friends. Wow. Talk about, you know, modern America, we'd be like, that's discouraging. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man. I will question you and you will make it known to me. And here's the crux. Verse 4. Where were you? First of all, remember, his overall critique of Job and his friends is words without knowledge. What knowledge is he talking about? Well, he gets verse 4, and then from several chapters, he's going to give a master class at the knowledge that God alone has that we could never have. And so when we speak words, we're speaking words without the benefits of, I'm talking about vast universe full loads of knowledge. This is what he's pointing out to Job. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone? When the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy. Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? When I made clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed limits for it, and set bars and doors, and said, Thus far shall you come and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed. We're going to stop there. It's hard to stop there because God just continues in this passage. incredible incredible soliloquy about just fully getting job and us by default the readers a clear understanding that what when genesis says in the beginning god created just what all that meant what was all required in that as we see here he's talking about laying a foundation he's talking about he's he's using language of of carpentry and and master building you know using plumb lines and determining how far clouds can move and what their role is. And this is just 11 verses, and he just goes on and on and on into all aspects of creation, reminding us or giving us a fuller picture. Basically, you want to read Job 38, 39, 40, 41 in companionship with Genesis chapter 1. and two because this is really the the full understanding of what was summarized in genesis 1 and 2 of what was really all the the wisdom and the the just master craftsmanship that was required to create what we all just look at today and so what god is doing is he's not defending himself Because God needs no defense. He's not insecure sitting there. I wish more people would believe in me. What he's doing is giving Job a clear picture of what reality actually is. He's giving him... Because we just exist in this world that God perfectly prescribed and perfectly manicured and everything. And we just act like it's just always been here. And it's just... You know, we have theories like Big Bang and things to just kind of remove the brilliance of it all. And here God is just cluing Job in on the realities of who he is. And the question is, where were you? Tell me if you have understanding. Surely you know, little satire. But he's just... He's cluing Job into what reality really is. God has this vast understanding that is the foundation and is behind every single action that he does. And here's the reality, the painful reality of it is you and me and Job, we walk through life without an iota of that knowledge. even with all the scientific instruments and the Webb telescope and all this stuff, we still just, we have like a grain of sand of understanding in an entire ocean of sand of God's knowledge. And it's that knowledge that sets up everything that he does. It's that knowledge that gives God insight into every part every little thing that he puts into motion. So we can ask the question why, but our brains can't even comprehend or contain just even the most minuscule understanding of the answer to the question why. So that's where God takes Job. He doesn't take Job down a logical apologetic as to understanding why the problem of evil and why. Here's evil and this is my relationship with evil. And let me explain this so I can put it in a nice little package. Put it in your finite little puny human brain. And it's impossible to do that based on the limitations of who we are as his creation. As special and as brilliant as we are, and as we are the crown jewel of his creation, we still have tremendous limits when it comes to understanding these big, big whys. All the Bible tells us, what the Bible wants to make sure we know is God is good. He is all-knowing, all-powerful. These big, huge convictions that we have to take and we have to receive, even though it's impossible for our brains to fully understand all the insights that God has in order to make perfectly right decisions and an action plan like He has. So, So the big overall thing that I took away from reading through God's response to Job, and I think what he really wants us all to understand as he's laying out, this is reality. He's not making a case for himself. He's not making an apologetic. He's just saying, let me just really beautifully declare for you what's real. This is me. This is what you say you believe, me as all God, the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the entire universe and sustainer of the entire universe. This is what that actually means. And then when you compare yourself to what that actually means, there should be a much clearer understanding when it comes to these why questions. But the real danger of asking the question why... And this is the crux of it all. This is the first thing before we go to Job 42. Why removes God from his rightful judgment seat? This is what God for four chapters is basically laying out. Everything he's saying I do is perfect, good, and right. That's it. Because I have this vast... experiential insight and knowledge into what it is that he actually put into place that we do not have. Where were you? Where was I when God did these things? We were nowhere. We were nowhere to be found. And even if God played us a movie of it all, we wouldn't understand it all because our brains just can't We can't contain that much wisdom and insights into what it actually was to create an entire universe. We can't contain that. So because of that, because God, that's really real, and we believe that, we believe that in Genesis 1 and 2, We believe that to be true. That means God has a unique position to sit on a judgment seat. He's the only rightful person to sit on a judgment seat. And what I mean by judgment seat, I don't mean as far as like heaven and hell. I mean as far as like just determining what is good and what is right. He's got this whole context of understanding and insight that we don't have. So He's the only one that can sit on that judgment throne to look at our lives and to look at the things that he purposes into our lives and to say, that's actually a good thing. That's actually a good thing. We sit there like Job on the receiving end and we're like, this is terrible. This is awful. God must hate me. What have I done wrong? Is he punishing me? Why? Why is this happening? Why is this happening? And anytime we ask this question, this is what we need to understand. It's okay to ask the question. Because that's part of the human emotional process. God is patient and kind with us. He understands that's part of the human process. So it's not so much asking the why question that removes God from his rightful judgment seat. It's when we reject... the goodness of God and the clear convictions of the Bible, the clear big truths of the Bible. We reject those until we get a satisfactory answer to the why. We have now taken God off the throne and we've put ourselves on the throne. Think about that because I will not accept God, your terms, Until you give me a satisfactory answer that I can understand, that I will say, that makes sense. Do you understand? Now, why questions? That's why they're so tricky. They make us ascend to the judgment seat as far as determining what is good and right. That's what we do when we reject aspects of biblical truth and God's nature. And we don't put our trust and our faith in them until we get an answer we like. We have taken God off the judgment throne and we're putting ourselves in there. And this is what God's trying to get Job to understand. You shouldn't be on that throne. You don't want to be on that throne because you're not equipped to be on that throne. There's only one being in all of the universe that it's equipped if we have a healthy, consistent, biblical worldview. It's God and God alone. So what does that mean? We'll get into the implications at the end, which are pretty simple, but yet really profound and really helpful if you can really grasp it. So So that's the big picture. That's the thing that we want to be careful of. The question why removes God from his rightful judgment seat. Because now we are playing the role of God. Because I'm going to ask you why, God, and if I don't get an answer back that satisfies me, I won't subscribe to that part of the faith. And it's very... It's very natural, like that's basically the human religious condition right now. But we have to be mindful of that. We have to be mindful of that. Psalms are full of laments, going to God in devotion and prayer, seeking wisdom, seeking his understanding. Nothing wrong with that. As long as at the end of the day, it's... God, your will be done, not mine. As long as that's the attitude that is at the foundation of these times of wrestling and questioning is satisfactory answer or not, I'm still here and I'm still moving forward. That's ultimately where Job ended up. And that's why he gets... Why God... just acknowledges him and acknowledges his faith even through this tremendous challenge and these questionings. But for us as modern American Christians, when we kind of a la carte our faith and we take or leave portions of just basic biblical convictions based on, yeah, I don't get that. I don't understand that. We need to understand, oh man, I am Sitting on the judgment seat. And that's not a place you want to be. God's response to Job's questioning is, you're asking to sit on a seat that you aren't equipped to be on and you don't want to be on. Let me be the only one who sits on that seat. That's it. So, first, that kind of sets the stage for... I think to have a healthier experience, a healthier understanding as we wrestle, like I said, again, it's not the wrestling. It's the ultimate rejecting when we don't get the answers that we feel are intellectually satisfactory. That's putting the wrong thing and the wrong person on the judgment seat. Okay, so now we're going to look at Job 42. We're going to look at Job's response. Very simple. And then we're going to find three impacts of what happens when we sit on God's seat of judgment. When we keep pressing the why questions and we keep going for it. This is what was corrected in Job's heart at the end, what he was so grateful for. He was so grateful for the correction because he saw the error of where his heart wanted to lead him. And he was so grateful for the rebuke. So we're going to look at three impacts from Job 42, 1 to 6. As verse 1, Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. That's really the only accurate answer. to what God laid out in chapters 38, 39, 40, 41. So this is showing that Job got it. He was getting it. So he has a new perspective. He has a new perspective in which to view his challenges through, his hardships, his trials. And it's this understanding that God can do all things that no purpose of his can be thwarted. Verse 3. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Kind of repeating the question that God asked to him. Therefore, here's his response to God's challenge to him. I love this. Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand. He gets it. Things too wonderful to me, which I did not know. Verse four, hear and I will speak. I will question you and you make it known to me. I had heard, and this is the beautiful verse, verse five. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Man, oh, how I just wish I could be in that place. Obviously, Lord, be gracious to me without the ridiculous challenges that Job had to endure to get to this point. And this is what I want for you as well, is this We have heard of God by hearing the ear. We heard some preacher, preacher or some teacher teach. But now we want our eyes to see God in this. That was the result of four chapters of God just bearing it all before Job, the truth. And then you see this humility, this This natural response whenever God truly reveals himself and you have a healthy understanding of who he is compared to who you are. What do you do? You repent. That's what you do. You repent. So let's look at in these verses we see three impacts of trying to sit on God's judgment seat. First, repentance. The question why does three things. Number one, it robs perspective. It robs you of this perspective, this beautiful statement, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. This just humble reception and just full-fledged faith conviction that all I can do is look around everything, the good and the bad, and say, Praise, blessed be the name of God, because he is behind it all. He's behind it all. It's this perspective, this perspective of faith that doesn't try to minimize. One of my biggest pet peeves of modern evangelical faith is we try so many things. kind of intellectual ways to get God off the hook of the bad things that happen on this planet. We've dedicated a whole wing of our intellectual faith pursuit to basically answer the problem of the existence of evil in this world by trying to remove God from any responsibility. Because we just, in our... And I understand it in kind of our fallen minds. It's hard for us to reconcile a good God with just the most terrible circumstances. And so what we do, our knee-jerk reaction is to separate those two and be like, well, obviously God's not responsible for that. Otherwise, he wouldn't be good. And that's not where Job ends up. That's not where he ends up with like, After God straightens him out, he has this perspective. You're behind it all. You're behind it all. You truly are the all-powerful, all-sovereign, all-knowing being of the entire universe. So I'm done trying to separate you. I want you to be involved in all of it. Because then it works. Then it makes sense. Then my worldview is actually complete. So... So that question, why, robs us of that perspective because we're like, well, why God would do this and not that? We're robbed. Basically what we're doing is we're separating him from some circumstances while gladly, you know, hey, someone just wrote me a check for a million dollars. Praise God. We'll include it readily, God, that. Or, you know, someone was healed of a disease. Thank you, God. And we'll include him in that, but exclude him in all the terrible things that happen. So we have a not all-powerful God as a result. That's our perspective. That's why we struggle in our faith is because God is no longer all-powerful. He's no longer all-knowing. He's no longer omnipotent. He's no longer everywhere. He's only... somewhere, in some places. So we ask ourselves then the question, how do I manipulate God to get him involved? And that just sends you on a completely ridiculous faith pursuit. So that's, we need this perspective of Job. God needs to be the God of all of it in order for God to truly be who he is. Now, that sets up. I know you're sitting there listening. You probably have 20 why questions lined up. We'll get to that in a sec. So, the question why robs us of this perspective. Because we now have a limited God as we seek these answers. Next thing we see in verse 3. It reaps pride. So at Rob's perspective, it reaps pride. When he says, therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand. We question God when he should be the one questioning us. So asking the question, why, and putting myself first, on the judgment seat just reaps pride as God now is on trial. God now is the one on trial. That's not a way a biblical worldview works. There's only one person that deserves to be on trial and that's me. That's me. It's so prideful and arrogant for us to put God in the position of having to answer are interrogative questions as to why he would do anything. It's backwards if you have a healthy worldview. It doesn't make any sense. So it reaps pride, and this is what Job was rescued from. He's like, I uttered what I did not understand. Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Last impact, so it robs perspective, it reaps pride, and it ravages our confidence. It ravages our confidence, because look at verse five, this final place that Job finds, he finds himself in this confident, unshakable place of faith, where he says, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. Now my eyes see you. He now has a fuller picture of who God is. And if there's one thing that you learn from these discussions on the Christian Podcast, I hope it's this. The size and scope of your God will always determine the size and scope of your faith. If you're struggling with faith, if you're struggling to put trust in God, it's because you're your why questions have limited the scope of who God actually is. And this is like the number one disease of the modern American church, in my opinion, is we have enlightened our faith to no end to where I'll only go to a church where the pastor gives these answers that I've already pre-approved of based on my theological faith system. So I'll go to this church because they... Answer the questions the way I like them answered. And we don't even realize that means I'm sitting on the judgment seat, not God. And so therefore, our faith is small, which means we struggle with anxiety. We struggle with stress. We struggle with lack of trust. We struggle with lack of faith because we have put God in this little tiny box of our own understanding, our own ability to... to intellectually answer the tough questions. And so therefore, when we need confidence, it's nowhere to be found. In the darkest of dark times, and we need that faith to pull us through, we don't have confidence because throughout our faith development process, we have disassociated God from this specific circumstance. So, Our confidence gets ravaged. Ultimately, our trust is in ourselves, and this is the painful reality. If you've come to your faith, comfortability in your faith, because you got the right answers to the why questions, your trust is in yourself, not God. That's who you've learned to trust. And here's the problem with trusting in ourselves is we all know this subconsciously. And I say it, I've said it probably a hundred times on this podcast. There's one person on this planet that has hurt me more than anybody else. And that's myself. There's one person that has failed me more than everybody else. And that's myself. And we know this to be true deep down in our hearts. And so that's why we struggle. That's why we struggle to we need what Job got. We need this, not just hearing about God by the hearing of the ear, but this clear understanding, like seeing God, understand who he is. And then when you're in the darkest of lows and the darkest of times, you see this grandiose being that according to chapter or verse two, that no purpose of his can be thwarted. So I can put my trust in, I can put my faith there. I can put my trust and put my faith that, God has an insight into this situation that I couldn't possibly have. So he's good. He's good and ultimately this will end up for my good. So that's why I think this is so important. Remember the question why when we remove God from his judgment, his rightful seat of judgment, it robs us of perspective. It reaps pride inside of us and it ravages our confidence. So What's the solution? How do we solve this? How do we make sure we avoid those three impacts? Where do we get the place that Job's at? It's pretty simple. It's not easy, but it's simple. We have to learn to be very comfortable in the uncomfortability of not knowing why. I'm going to say that again, write that down, tweet it, whatever. We have to learn to be very comfortable in the uncomfortability of not knowing why. Stop. It's okay to wrestle and it's okay to call out those questions. But at the end of it, when you don't get a response, you let it go and say, This is too wonderful for me. The answer to this question is too wonderful to me. I've uttered what I do not understand. These things are too wonderful for me. And then you will have a healthy understanding. And we hate that. We hate that. Our flesh hates that. We don't want to believe that there's... We have a tough time understanding that there's a gross and significant difference between us and God. we want to see us on the same playing field because that's how we think we're special no no the bigger god is and the more different he is than us the more special we are because we are part of his plan we are part of his purpose that's where true faith comes from so yeah i don't this has helped me a lot i'm around a lot of kids i teach a lot of bible and And every time those why questions come my way, I no longer feel a burden to answer them. My new burden is just to point them back to the God of the Bible. Who is this God that we put our faith in? Not why does he do this, but who actually is he? How big is he? What is the scope of his power? Four chapters in Job are a great place to go, I think. It would do us all a lot of good to go back to those places, probably monthly, and just read through them like a song. And speaking of songs, I'm going to leave you with this gift. If I can, I don't want to break copyright laws or whatever, but if I can, I'm going to put a link to this song in the show notes. It's by a band called Ghost Ship. One of my favorite Christian artists, they have a song called Where Were You? And it's... It's kind of weird. It's a different song, but they basically tried to model and mimic the emotion of what they believe Job was walking through as he listens to God in Job 38. And then his subsequent response to that. It's by Ghost Ship. You can look for it yourself. It's called Where Were You. There's not a month that goes by that that song doesn't pop into my playlist and play it in my truck with my subwoofer, my two 12-inch subwoofers, because I want the full emotional reminding of what Job walked through. Because I, too, like Job, I don't want to just hear God by the hearing of the ear. I want to know Him by the seeing of my eyes. And that comes by just feeling the weight and the emotion of who He is. So, So yeah, I'll put that in there. I'll put a link in there, or you can just search it up yourself on Apple Music, Spotify, whatever it is that you use and favorite it and go to it once a month and read Job 38 through 42 yourself. It'll do you a lot of good. All right? As always, thank you guys for paying attention. Thank you for listening. I hope this helped. This is a big one. This is a meaty one. Shoot me a question if you need a little more help digesting that a little bit. Yeah, but thank you guys. I appreciate you guys. Please share the podcast, rate, review, do all those good things to bring to bring more ears to this type of teaching. All right, and until next time, Christian Well, we love you. Have a wonderful, wonderful week.