The Apparent Conflict of Faith

One recent morning I noticed this finch sitting in the comfort and security of the evergreen bushes that border our property. He looked safe, secure and perfectly content in his solitude surrounded with this sea of green branches. Our faith tells us that God feeds these creatures without them investing into the planting or the harvesting of all that they eat. And in that provision of God our faith asks us “are we not of more value than they”? The answer is yes, of course. (Mathew 6:26-34) tells us not to worry about such things as food, clothing and all the necessities of life “For your Heavenly Father knows that you have need of all things. But seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Not always the easiest thing to do based on our circumstances. For example, it is quite normal to worry about such matters when we get laid off from work or have been unemployed for a while and the unemployment benefits are about to expire. Not an unreasonable expectation of faith to trust God for our provisions for we can see proof that He does it every day for the birds in our back yard.

Trusting God for our next job provides some level of faith, but how in the world can a mother go through a terrible experience like that pictured above without blaming God in some context. I know I would. How can anyone trust God after going through losing a child to an atrocity like this? It seems like a conflict in faith until we take a closer look at the circumstances. Both a loss of job and loss of a son require a humbling of our self to what we are facing in faith. But each circumstance is dramatically different with different implications to our faith. For the first circumstance of losing our job, our faith tells us to expect provision. But what does our faith tell us with regard to loss of a loved one? Our faith tells us two things. The first is that God identifies with our pain (John 11:35). The second is perhaps a suggestion of why God permits tragedy in our lives. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3,4) All of us have experienced tribulation in life. All of us have more than likely experienced losing a family member. I have one daughter and I cannot imagine what the pain would be like if I lost her in some tragic way. But my wife can. She tragically lost her son to a drug addiction when he was 25 years old. She tells that through her experience an ability to understand the pain drug addiction can cause and an ability to comfort others was birthed in her. Up to that point in her life she never even considered what terrible plight drug addiction is for those suffering from it. The experience has birthed in her a compassion to all facing the predicament of addiction, even the homeless on the city street.

We do not choose the classroom in which God chooses to teach us about faith. For some it is through a loss of job, for others it is through traumatic loss of a child. But if we submit to the circumstance with our faith, we learn that is all we really need to sustain us regardless of the situation.