Someone recently asked me about how to respond to a man whose family was killed by a drunk driver. The questioner wanted to know how to break through this man’s grief and explain why a loving God would allow this.

From a big-picture standpoint, Christians believe that all bad things happen as a result of the fall of man. We rebelled, wrecked the world and have to live with the results. But this explanation provides little comfort to those who are dealing with tragedy in their lives.

As I have grown older, I have become increasingly comfortable with allowing God to be mysterious. This has relieved me of some of the pressure to provide explanations for particular events.

I believe that Scripture supports me in this. God told Habakkuk:

“For I am doing something in your days that you will not believe when you hear about it” (Habakkuk 1:5)

Through Habakkuk, God announced that he was going to use Babylon to punish Israel for her rebellion. When we read this 2,500 years after the fact, we can lose touch with what went on. Really, really bad things happened to people when they were conquered by Babylon. The fact that God announced it ahead of time does not make this event less tragic for those who were wounded, killed or taken captive.

In a sense, in the quote mentioned above, God is telling Habakkuk that he won’t get his head around what God is going to do and perhaps he shouldn’t even try.

In the same way, when we are speaking with someone who is forced to endure a difficult situation, we can lose sight of the fact that the pain is real and that no explanation will alleviate that pain.

We are doing everyone a disservice when we try to explain God’s motives for allowing a particular event.

In the book Embodied Hope, Kelly Kapic draws from John Swinton to highlight three negative consequences of attempting to explain why God allows an event.

1. The explanation often ends up justifying or rationalizing evil. By doing so they end up calling evil or suffering “good.”
2. The explanation often silences the voice of the sufferer. The danger is that we can “smother the wounded with useless and often inaccurate explanations.”
3. Explanations as to why the evil has occurred “can actually become evil in themselves, promoting further suffering rather than providing genuine comfort.”

So, when a friend, family member or church associate is struggling to deal with a difficult situation, understand that it is not your job to explain it. By attempting an explanation, the most likely outcome is that you will misrepresent God and hurt the person you are attempting to help.

In Psalm 16, David says “I have set the Lord continually before me” (verse 8, NASB).

Perhaps that is the solution to the problem I highlighted in my most recent post. If I keep the Lord continually before me, I suspect that I would be less likely to think or say inappropriate things.

The Christian Standard Bible says it a different way. They translate this phrase as “I always let the Lord guide me.”

The problematic words in these translations are “always” and “continually.” I find that I have lapses when I allow my pride to take over and I think (and too often say) stupid stuff.

As I write this, I am reminded that we are called to be disciples. The root meaning of discipline and disciple is to learn. Disciples have to learn to exercise discipline.

To exercise discipline is to learn a new way. It is to learn from our mistakes. Discipline takes conscious, continual effort.

So today, let’s resolve to follow David in letting the Lord guide us. Let us resolve to set the Lord continually on our minds.

I must also point out that for the Christian, the motivation for putting forth this effort is not fear of punishment, but love for our Savior. Love is a much better motivator and will carry us through when we fail, as we often do.

Every weekday, I get to spend two or more hours behind the wheel as part of my job. Rather than surfing the radio dial for music or listening to talk radio, I decided to listen to an audio Bible. I figure that even if I don’t catch every detail, I will still benefit from the listening.

Yesterday, I listened to 1 Chronicles 11 where the author lists David’s mighty men. While listening, the thought struck me that for David to achieve the success that he had as king, he needed the support of these men. God equipped and called these men to establish the Kingdom of Israel. David, working alone, could not have achieved all that was accomplished with the support of the mighty men. The establishment of the David’s Kingdom was a team effort.

Fast forward 3,000 years.

The church in America too often centers around a person who is gifted in teaching or one who is good at presenting a vision. As that pastor/leader goes, so goes the congregation he leads.

But, for the church to be all that she needs to be, it must be a team effort. Too often we have leaders and church staff holding back what God wants to do out of fear that they will lose control and that things will happen that are not part of the vision of the leaders.

As a result, we may try to limit what happens to what fits the box that we’ve put around the organization. By doing this, we can inadvertently limit what God will do in our congregation.

God calls us as church leaders to equip the people in our congregations for the works of ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12). It seems to me like we are called to equip them and then turn them loose. Certainly there is the call to be shepherds and correct doctrinal error when it is encountered, but there should not be any sense of limiting the forms in which the ministry happens.

God called and equipped the mighty men to support David. God calls and equips the members of our congregations to build the church (his church, not ours). David did not micromanage his mighty men, he turned them loose. Neither should we micromanage the people in our congregations.

The strength of the church does not rest in the leader or leaders. The strength of the church rests in the entire body that Christ fits together. Every member of the body needs to be nurtured and sustained.

If we are to accomplish all that God has for us, we need to remember that it is a team effort and we stand or fall based on how well we nurture every member.