The Thoughts of a Young Preacher

I got a call yesterday from a fellow minister. His question is one that I have been asked many times before mostly by teens when I was doing youth ministry in Abiliene. He told me that he was struggling to answer this question. Are we allowed to Question God ? My friend told me that a college student that is an active part of his college ministry was really struggling with the loss of a teammate on his college soccer team. The student was angry because he felt like his teammate was getting close to becoming a Christian and yet because of a drunk driver will never get the chance. If my friends had called me a year ago I would have probably answered this question much differently then I do today. When I was a minister in Montana I was shown something that I have never seen before. It was one of those things that was right in my face and yet I failed to see the significance of the bigger picture. A woman in our congregation in Montana had lost a child several years before to SIDS. If you don't know anything about SIDS just know that it causes babies very suddenly and unexpectedly to pass away. There is no way to detect and there is no medical explanation for this as far as I know. To make a long story short this woman after losing her child had a very difficult time with her faith. She talked about how one day she was feeling guilty for asking God why he had let her child die and then she read some scriptures that opened her heart. In Matthew 27:46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"-which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" NIV If the very son of God is supposed to be our example in everything then he would not have questioned the Father if it was not ok with the Lord. Hear I was a Bible major, studied the word in depth under some amazing teachers and I had never thought of such an obvious example. For the record I agree with this women. After looking at the scripture and the entire setting of what happened during the crucifixion I believe that Jesus really wanted to know why this is the way it had to be. Why did he have to suffer so much? Why could salvation not be passed on some other way? I know that there are several other scriptures that involve this topic but I think that we serve a God that wants to hear our hearts in both amazing times and desperate times. He wants a real relationship with us more then just about anything else. I say if you are really struggling with the things of this life and wonder why they have happened then go to the Lord. He may not answer you in the time frame that you want, He may not give you the answer you want. I do believe that the Lord can handle any question. That He can stand and answer anything that happens to us in this life when we just cannot understand. I am confident that our Lord can take anything that has gone wrong and turn it into something good. More then that I am grateful that he allows sinners like himself into His presence with open arms!