The recent string of mass shootings and natural disasters has had the devastating effect of planting seeds of doubt in the faithful. It seems like a fateful flip of the coin determines who lives, who dies. Heads, you live, tails you die.

We struggle to comprehend how a loving God could allow such tragedy. How could He allow innocent children to be taken by an act of pure evil or seemingly random violence of natural disaster? How could He allow His faithful followers to suffer?

Understandably, our human doubts rise to the surface.

But perhaps there is another coin to be flipped – a coin that wins regardless of which side lands on top.

It is a coin of God’s realm, with faith on one side and trust on the other. And just as a monetary coin has a pair of impressions embossed on a metal core, God’s coin has a core that binds faith and trust together.

Perhaps the core of God’s coin is hope.

If we put on our logic hat for a moment, we might recognize that hope is the foundation of our desire to embrace Christianity. Hope is that desire for a good future. Hope is that desire to exist free of want, free of pain, free of loss.

And then comes tragedy. Our hope for a better world, our hope for justice and peace and love is tarnished.

Time to flip God’s coin.

And it comes up – trust.

If we truly employ our logic, we must conclude that God’s purpose, God’s plan for humanity is well beyond our ability to comprehend. Would it be the height of human arrogance to believe we could possibly see events from God’s perspective?

If we had just a glimpse of God’s plan for us, we might understand that “free will” comes with a price. And that price is to endure the pain and suffering that the free will of others can bring and the natural consequences of the world we inhabit.

Another glimpse might suggest that God allows such events because He rejoices in seeing humanity coming together in times of crisis. And He knows – what we can only hope for – that the victims of these tragic events return to Him where they await our arrival.

And so we flip that coin again – and again it comes up – trust. But the core of that coin hasn’t changed. It is still hope.

If we reflect on that message, we might recognize that trust is inevitably bonded to faith through hope. When we accept the concepts of a loving God and the promise of heavenly home for eternity, we will conclude that, regardless of our earthly experiences, things will work out for the best – by God’s standards. And that is our hope.

So, the logic that is so much a factor of our daily lives, demands that, even in our hour of greatest pain, we firmly grasp that coin. In the darkness of our despair, we need to feel the substance, the firm core of hope. We need to embrace both sides of the coin.

It is the strangest of coins. Faith requires trust. Trust requires faith. Both are bound together by hope.

Flip that coin if you must.  Either way it lands, you win.