YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH

Prior to reading please watch this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGvQtumNAY

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and he was telling me how God is to blame for a bad thing that happened in his life. I tried to relay that sometimes things just happen, people make bad decisions, and that life is tough, God is not always to blame. I got nowhere so I decided to concede that God is truly to blame, if he would concede that God is all powerful and all knowing.

With his permission I would like to tell you his story. My friends name is Alan. Alan is about my age, early forties, late thirties, he is married with two children, a daughter 6, and a son who is 4. His beautiful wife was pregnant with their third child when this story takes place. By all measures you would consider Alan successful. He has a good career whereby not only does he make a good living, he also has been promoted to place of prominence, he has over 600 employees in his employ.

Early on a cool November morning Alan was having to face a decision. His wife was struggling with the pregnancy and had to be hospitalized. The Doctor had said that when Alan's wife was going to be released, she would be bedridden for at least 6 months. Alan had a decision, quit his career and stay home to take care of his wife and kids or hire a nanny. Well surely all of us would agree, the best course of action would be to simply hire a nanny and not quit what it took Alan 15 years to create, a great career. So Alan went about his due diligence, interviews, references, background checks, drug tests, you know the usual when hiring for such an important role as nanny. Alan found the perfect fit, responsible, mature, and experienced nanny, and back to work Alan went knowing everything at home was taken care of.

Then it happened; the worse. The nanny was driving the kids to school one day when a truck t-boned the mini van. The van flipped numerous times and settled in the median, bent metal, broken glass, bodies strewn. Alan's life flipped over too. The daughter didn't survive the accident, dead at the age of 6, the 4 year old son, he wouldn’t being playing baseball that night, or ever again, paralyzed from the neck down. A couple months later the third baby was born but it wasn't the same. Alan harbored bitterness to the baby because he felt as if his wife hadn't been sick because of the pregnancy none of this would have happened. Oh yeah, Alan's wife, she just couldn't handle it, through it all she had to be committed to protect herself, from herself. This is when I get a call from Alan, "why God, why", he says, "Why didn't God intervene, where was he?"

Where was He indeed?

Consider this alternate story if you will.

With his permission I would like to tell you the story of a friend of mine named Alan. Alan is about my age, early forties, late thirties, he is married with two children, a daughter 6, and a son who is 4. His beautiful wife was pregnant with their third child when this story takes place. By all measures you would consider Alan successful. He has a good career whereby not only does he make a good living, he also has been promoted to place of prominence whereby he has over 600 employees in his employ.

Early on a cool November morning Alan was having to face a decision. His wife was struggling with the pregnancy and had to be hospitalized. The Doctor had said that when Alan's wife was going to be released, she would be bedridden for at least 6 months. Alan had a decision, quit his career and stay home to take care of his wife and kids or hire a nanny. Well surely all of us would agree, the best course of action would be to simply hire a nanny, or would it?

But then it happened, the worse, Alan was laid off from his career, devastating. The economy was the worse Alan had ever seen it in his lifetime and his particular industry was going belly up. This is when I get a call from Alan, "why God, why", he says, "Why didn't God intervene, where was he?"

Where was He indeed?

Alan never hired the nanny, the car accident never happened, the daughter did not die, the boy, still playing baseball, and his wife is fine, but Alan didn’t know what didn’t happen, he never knew what “would be”, he only knows what he thinks “should be“.

Alan, like us, was apparently too focused on what “should be” and all powerful, all knowing God knows what “would be”. Alan should have been able to keep his career, but God knew there was more at stake. I would presume that what “would be” is not ever dependent on what we think “should be“, and since God is all powerful, all knowing maybe, just maybe God did intervene when Alan got laid off, because the “would be” was far more worse than what is.

With apologies to A Few Good Men and God, imagine God, played by Jack Nicholson, Alan, the attorney play by Tom Cruise.

Alan : Did you order the lay off?
God: I did what I had to do
Alan: Did you order the lay off?
God: Alan, you want answers.
Alan: I think I am entitled.
God: You want answers!
Alan: I want the truth!

God: You can’t handle the truth! Son we live in a world where we have walls and those walls have to be guarded, I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom, you weep for your job loss and you direct anger and blame at me, you have that luxury, you have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that your job loss while tragic, saved you a much greater loss. My action while incomprehensible to you saves you a great pain. You don’t want the truth because if I revealed how close you were to greater loss, you would live your life, paralyzed by fear forever. Son, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall and I have neither the time nor inclination to explain myself to a man that rises and sleeps under the very blanket of free will and salvation that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it, I would rather you just say thank you and went on your way.

Alan: Did you order the lay off?
God : Your absolutely right I did.

Come on, be honest, a lot of us blame God for something, we all do, after all, he is all knowing all powerful. But maybe, just maybe, the bad thing that you blame God for, is the very thing He did or allowed to happen to you to save you from what He knows “would be”. Just because we think something should be doesn’t mean it would be and should we possibly change the blame we have for God and simply say “thank-you” and go on about our way?

Could it be that when things seem to be farthest from what we believe should be, is when God is most involved preventing the devastation that would be?

Be intentional, be engaged, be interactive, be a Red Fox Father.