Killer Couey...and others

I really don't know what to say. Next Wednesday I'll be presenting the 4th in a series we're calling, Conversations About God. This one is problematic because I'm supposed to explain why it is that bad things happen to "good" and innocent people. For example: John Couey recently died in prison while awaiting his death sentence to be carried out. You'll probably recall that this man, a know sex offender, kidnapped, molested and buried alive (along with her teddy bear) a young, innocent Florida girl.

When I think about men like Couey, innocent girls like Jessica, the wrath of Satan, the evilness of evil, and the love of God, it's really...I'll say it again...really hard to try to explain why bad things happen to innocent people. There are forty, dead orphans buried in the rubble of their orphanage in Haiti. Explain that!

I have heard well meaning Christians (read, Adventists) say that God has to allow sin to fully express its sinfulness before He calls a halt to Couey-like atrocities. That explanation is unacceptable. You've heard me say before that world wide, 30,000 children die each day from hunger. So, how many days...months...years...centuries...does just that one thing have to continue to convince man that evil kills.

No! God is not waiting for evil to fully express itself. That was accomplished on the cross when Evil crucified God in His Christ; whom incidentally, is waiting for His people to even want the Holy Spirit, so that the Third Angel's message can be fully proclaimed, so that God can call an eternal "Time Out!" so that all who choose Christ can be with Him, and all who have chosen Satan can perish in the all-consuming eternal fire of God.

Imagine standing next to the family gathered around the small casket of their child; a child stolen, violated, and murdered. They turn to you, tears running down their cheeks, and they ask in an angry, accusatory tone, "Why did God let this happen???" And you answer........what?

That's today's question; what is your answer? What would you have to say that would give comfort and hope to someone(s) suffering an unbearable loss? How do you explain God to others? Is it by words...they fall so easily from the lips...or is it by your life, our lives, our empathetic tears, our sorrow that is too deep to be expressed in mere words.

We should study to show ourselves approved of God and to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us.

Pray for me, that God will give me words that are anything but "mere."

e.c.