“Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he slammed the door on his compassion?” Psalm 77:9
I’m presently annoyed with the Almighty. Some, for sure, suggest such is not advisable – maybe not even permissible. That’s unfortunate, because I’m learning otherwise.
My state of mind is owing to the sad reality that I’ve lost three dear friends already in 2013 by what we often refer to as “untimely” deaths. Certain of my religious friends don’t like me using terms like that either, but I’m confident that, in time, they will see past that too.
I wrote here of the horrific vehicle accident in early January that claimed the life of Airdronian, congregant and unique friend, Cory Goertzen, stolen from his wife and five children at age 39. In early February, a six-and-a-half foot Lakota (Sioux) Native American whom I fondly called “the Chief” sustained a fatal heart-attack at 58 years, leaving his wife and four sons, a.k.a “the tribe.”
Richard’s contribution to my efforts to embrace an understanding of the Christian gospel that is liberated from its cultural accoutrements was weighty. It was he who invited me to participate in my first-ever “pow-wow.” Mom would have been so proud.
Then, just a few days after Easter, David, another friend, succumbed at 44 to a 10-year tempestuous clash with brain cancer departing his wife and two young children. Devout fly-fisherman that he was, coming to Canada to fish the Bow River remained on his bucket-list at his passing.
Thus, as you might appreciate, I’ve done a lot of praying this calendar year, although, to be honest, it’s been more like “venting” or “dumping.” Something, anyway, that’s been periodically and mercifully alleviated by recalling why it was I was initially drawn to meaningful relationships with these three in the first place. So doing has evoked some strong emotions for me resulting in an eagerness to articulate to God my not-so-petty disgruntlement with “his ways,” even though, as I have declared many times to those in circumstance where I now find myself, they “are not our ways.”
This is not easy stuff, this sorting through the adversities that life sends our way.
Grief has the relentless capacity to get us to wrestle with some of the most profound questions mankind has ever articulated. Thus have I been graciously reminded that a penchant to be annoyed with what Providence permits isn’t unique to early 21st-century types who excel at calling God or even the notion of “god” to account (Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris, et al).
Check out the entirety of the psalm noted above as but one example that our “venting” is really nothing new for the Almighty. God has heard it all – and worse - before!
Tim Callaway is the pastor at Faith Community Baptist Church. He can be reached at [email protected]
