The Morning Will Come: Finding Hope in Sufferingنموونە

Does God Feel Cruel?

Not too long ago, I overheard my daughter Kristi say on the phone, “Sometimes I think God is low-key savage. It seems like he wants to take away the things that we don’t even realize we rely on.”

I was taken aback. God? Low-key savage? Kristi had to explain the meaning to me: subtly ruthless with a touch of irony.

Then I realized many of us suspect that, but we phrase it differently. A friend shared at Bible study, “I have lots of fears, particularly about my family’s safety. I’m afraid to ask God to help me get over them because I don’t know what He’ll do.” We laughed because we could all relate.

Yet I know that God isn’t cruel or unkind, despite how it looks. Everything that He brings into our life, including trials, is out of love, to do us good in the end.

When I was two, I couldn’t walk but was so happy to be carried around on people’s shoulders. So, when I woke up with my legs in a cast after my first surgery, I wondered why I was in so much pain and why I couldn’t move my legs. I was furious at my mother, and then broke down in tears, promising not to be naughty if she would take away the horrible white pajamas.

I thought I was being punished. And even after my mother tried to explain it to me, I didn’t understand. How could I grasp that this surgery could one day help me walk? I couldn’t. In my two-year-old mind, I just wanted to go back to the way things were. My mother bravely watched me suffer, knowing that I blamed her for it. She hated seeing me in pain, and if there was another way to help me walk, she would have done it.

In the same way, God does not enjoy seeing us suffer. He loves us more than an earthly parent ever could.

When I asked Kristi about her conversation, she said, “I know God isn’t savage. But I told my friend sometimes it feels like that because He knows what motivates us and takes away the things we rely on. But I learned that when God takes things away, it makes us rely on Him more, which in the end is so much better.”

She’s right. It can feel like God is being cruel. Maybe you feel that way today because God has taken away something or someone precious to you. Despite how it feels, know that God loves you and everything you experience comes from that love. He who didn’t spare His son because He loves us that much, wants to give you everything good. You can trust Him.

REFLECT: Where, in your own life, have you suspected God of being “low-key savage”? How have you learned to rely more on God through the losses you’ve endured?