One of the most challenging moments in our struggle to cling to our spiritual foundation is when tragedy strikes, and our logical-self cries out, “why does God allow…”

Fill in the blank from your own experience.

In such moments, our logical thinking collides head-on with our spiritual beliefs.

If God loves us, how can He allow us to experience such pain? How can He ignore our prayers?

Our logic tells us – something is wrong, here. This isn’t what I expect from a loving God. And we find our faith faltering. And we are confused. And we experience frustration and anxiety. And we are angry.

And it continues until time diminishes the impact on our lives.

Recently, my wife and I experienced such an event that shook the foundations of our faith. And we found ourselves asking, “Why did God allow…?”And we found ourselves struggling to understand God’s silence.

Our pain began on a Saturday morning.

After an emergency trip to a veterinarian, we made the painful decision to euthanize one of our senior dogs. Since this dog was my wife’s favorite, with whom she had an especially strong bond, this decision, and the fulfillment of that decision was devastating.

And then the questioning began.

Why did God take this sweet little creature from our lives?

Why did God take the one who gave us the most joy? Why didn’t He take one of our other dogs with who we had less attachment?

Why did God allow us to suffer such anguish?

Why doesn’t He answer our prayers and give us peace?

Through the fog of our pain, tears and depression we struggled to understand. And understanding began to emerge until ultimately, we began to acknowledge the answer.

And the answer is – there is a greater purpose. God’s purpose. And perhaps that purpose is to draw us closer to Him.

We began to recognize that, equipped with our five senses, our education and life experience, we are not capable of fully understanding God’s plan. It is a big picture. Bigger and more complex than anything we can imagine or grasp. And so, being unable to accept on faith alone, we fall back on one of our intellectual tools – in itself, a gift from God – logic. Perhaps a blend of faith and logic can offer some relief.

Normally, we might view logic as the antithesis of faith, but maybe we can apply logic to strengthen our faith.

Our first logical conclusion is that we cannot begin to understand God’s plan, but we can glimpse a few aspects.

The death of a loved one, whether it be human or favorite pet, is always traumatic. It is traumatic today. It has been traumatic for all of human existence. It is part of the human experience.

But death and limited lifespan is critical to our world. Logic clearly shows us that the cycle of birth/life/death is necessary. If it were not for the death element, things would have become very crowded on our planet. In a sense, God is the ultimate recycler.

To deny death would require that life itself be denied. It would require denying new beings the opportunity to live and enjoy all the experiences of a life.

Perhaps God’s plan includes teaching us to appreciate joy by allowing us to experience the opposite extreme.

Perhaps God’s plan includes helping us to fully appreciate the time we have with those we love, while we still have the chance.

Perhaps God’s plan is to allow us to suffer, so that we grow as spiritual beings and build the strength we need for the next challenge..

Perhaps God’s plan is to permit us our anguish so that we are capable of being there for others in their time of need.

Perhaps God doesn’t answer our prayers to give us the opportunity to reflect on all He has promised and to give us the chance to reconnect with Him by learning trust.

As my wife and I work our way through our grief, I am reminded of the poem of The Footprints in the Sand.

When we feel lost and abandoned by God, we need to remember the last line of that poem…

“It was then that I carried you.”

As to our, personal bit of tragedy, some would say, “It was only a dog.”

Certainly, in comparison to greater tragedies such as losing a child, spouse or other loved one, this was a minor event.

But to those who have embraced such a creature as a member of the family – a perpetual child, such a loss is actually comparable.

To all that knew and loved this little creature, he was much more. He was the purest, most powerful form of pure, unconditional love you could imagine. He was the focal point of most of the joy in our household. He was the one who taught us how to accept every visitor, every encounter with love.

Others would question, as did we, “Do dogs go to heaven? Will we be reunited one happy day?”

To that, I would respond – A love that powerful cannot simply be extinguished. In whatever form it takes, even if form we cannot understand in this life, a love that pure must return to God from whence it came.

Perhaps to be shared again. Perhaps to bring joy to another heart.

And maybe that is God’s final lesson.

You woke up this morning.

For many of us, that in itself, is a miracle, and we recognize it as such. Maybe you are suffering from a disease that promises to end your days. Maybe you drank too much, took too many drugs, or just plain neglected your health. If any of those conditions describe you, then truly, each day you open your eyes to a new sunrise is a miracle.

And, if none of those conditions apply to you, it’s still a miracle.

Most of us never really analyze the basic functioning of our own bodies. Even fewer of us will recognize the miracles we experience on a daily basis, and recognize the logic that only a Power beyond our comprehension could engineer a self-sustaining organism such as a human body.

To quote from the book “Faithful Logic, Logical Faith:”

Our grasp of basic scientific principles and our foundation of logical thought was established during our high school education. Yes, most of us went on to gain additional education and training in job-specific areas. But the basic concepts that allow us to reason, understand (to some degree) the science that permeates our everyday lives came from those critical educational years. And therein lies the problem.

We studied chemistry, biology and perhaps, physics. We probably had a touch of geology, astronomy and the history of scientific development. Finally, we were exposed to the mother lode, the bedrock of all science and logic – mathematics. Whatever we missed in that critical time, we picked up in bits and pieces over the years watching the History Channel and similar programs. Gradually, we developed the habit of viewing our existence via the “scientific method.”

Unfortunately, it is that very science training and education that blinds us to the simplest of miracles.

When you awoke this morning, you transitioned from a sleep state to a conscious state without any intentional effort (okay, maybe a little help from that morning cup of coffee). All your senses, which had pretty much been in stand-by mode, came on line. You could taste that coffee, see the morning rays of sun, hear the birds celebrating another day, and feel the morning chill.

A few hours earlier, when you retired for the night, just the opposite occurred. One by one, all your senses went into idle.  Yet, they were still functional. The sound of the wind or the patter of rain on the window was ignored. But if your child screamed out from a nightmare, you would be instantly awake.

While you slept, your body temperature adjusted, your breathing continued, and your body refreshed and replenished itself. Your mind tuned out distractions and turned into itself to process dreams.

All those things occurred without any conscious effort on your part.

And then you awoke.

While contemporary science may have developed rechargeable batteries and robotic machines, mankind has yet to create a machine that is self-aware, replenishes its own power supply, and automatically recycles itself day after day for decades. So far, that is exclusive to God.

To anyone who denies that miracles occur, I say, “think again.” We each experience these miracles day after day, year after year, for a lifetime. And that is a miracle.

(If you would like to more fully explore the reasons that faith can be proven by logic, we encourage you to investigate the book “Faithful Logic, Logical Faith” – click HERE.)

 

 

As many times as we may hear these phrases, there is no doubt that this can be a stumbling block in our effort to reconcile our logical thinking with the concepts of faith.

The hard-core naysayers would mock these phrases, saying – “Does God have such an enormous ego that He requires constant adoration?”

Perhaps the true question is “do we need to express our love to receive the benefits of a relationship with our creator?” Does it serve any purpose to “praise” God?

Even those of us open to finding a reason to abolish our doubts and embrace the Christian message may struggle to fully grasp the concept of loving a spiritual entity Who has no visible form in our material existence? We are all familiar with the emotional feeling of love for a spouse, a child, even a pet. But we may find it difficult to experience that same feeling for a spiritual being we cannot see or touch.

Like so much of our understanding of the spiritual dimension of our existence, the answer may be more complex than we realize.

In our effort to apply logic to accepting the messages in the Bible, we might find a parallel and a solution in contemporary motivational psychology.

Anyone who has sought the “secrets” of achievement has probably encountered some variation of the message that success is more likely when a person approaches their goal with a fervent desire to reach that goal. The promoters of methods of personal achievement all seem to stress the need for an emotional element as key to obtaining the desired result.

If this is true, logic suggests that a strong emotional element seems to tap into or evoke an unidentified force that has the capacity to influence the outcome.

In short, there is power in passion.

Further along the trail of logical reasoning, we might recognize that loving and praising God is not for His benefit, but for ours. It may be that the emotional element of “loving” God creates a stronger, clearer channel of communication with the Creator.

“And you shall  love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength.” – Mark 12-30

Perhaps praising and loving God is simply expressing gratitude.

And perhaps expressing gratitude opens the floodgates to greater blessings.

You will find my personal mantra in the closing comments of my book – “Faithful Logic, Logical Faith.”

Click HERE to learn about my journey of discovery.

 

 

(In response to those who requested a taste of the message in the book that inspired this website, here is an excerpt from the book – “Faithful Logic, Logical Faith.”)

The first barrier we need to overcome is the subject of language. We all have had experience in seeing our language change, even in the course of our own lifetime. If you were able to speak to your great-great grandparents, imagine their reaction if you were to describe someone as “really cool.” They would probably interpret that as a person who was cold and indifferent, or perhaps needing a blanket. You would probably find yourself struggling to explain how that term actually describes an admirable character trait.

Now, apply that concept to the language of the Bible. Mix in the task of interpreting between several languages, add a few thousand years rather than a couple of generations, and you can begin to see how confusing things can get.

Dedicated biblical scholars may spend a lifetime analyzing the oldest texts of the books of the Bible, trying to deliver the “right” interpretation. Considering all the factors, we can appreciate that, despite their best efforts, they are truly giving us their best guess.

Perhaps we are looking at the Bible from the wrong perspective. Instead of asking “is the Bible true” we should be asking “is the Bible truth.”

There is a difference.

Let’s go back to our logic for a moment. If we owe our existence to a supreme being with the ability to create the universe and the complex life forms and balance of nature that keeps us alive – is it too big a stretch to imagine that God would also devise a means to communicate with us through the ages?

Is it possible that God directed the recording of symbolic tales to make a point, much like the parables that Jesus used to make His points. Is it possible that God delivered His messages in a form that would be understood by less sophisticated humanity, yet still pertinent to people of our age? Is it possible that we put forth so much effort analyzing the accuracy of the Bible texts that we fail to grasp the larger message?

 

Perhaps nothing is more damaging to the image of a loving God than the death of a child. The universal refrain following such an event is “how can God allow that to happen?” Whether it be by violence, accident or illness, many a believer, pastors included, have found their faith severely tested when a child dies.

Our human logic struggles to reconcile the concept of loving God with the anguish of witnessing the death of an innocent child. It seems inconceivable that such a God would not only allow the pain and suffering, but would deny that child the joys they would experience as they grew to adulthood. The thrill of that first romantic kiss, getting a drivers license, cashing that first real paycheck, walking across the stage to receive her diploma – how can a loving God deny those pleasures?

Somehow the phrase, “everything happens for a reason,” rings hollow and false.

Perhaps the answer can only come to us in less stressful times. Perhaps the answer is to build up a reserve of faith and trust before it is needed.

If we are true to our logical minds, we must acknowledge that we cannot come to an accurate conclusion or understanding without all the facts. In anything related to the plans, purposes and intentions of God, we are undoubtedly lacking in information.

The best we can hope to do in difficult circumstances is to fall back on the reserves of trust that we have accumulated. In doing so we may recognize that there may indeed be elements of God’s ultimate plans for humanity that we are incapable of understanding or appreciating.

Everyone’s life contains some degree of pain, suffering, and tragedy. These are normal elements of the human experience. Perhaps it is the price we must pay for one of God’s greatest gifts-  free will-  and perhaps random events are part of God’s gift of human experience.

Those of us who are parents will recognize that there are times when we allow our children to experience some pain when we know from our older/wiser perspective, that such pain serves a greater purpose in our child’s growth into adulthood. Perhaps, from God’s perspective, our pain, in losing a child, serves a greater purpose than we can understand or recognize in our journey of spiritual growth.

Certainly an all-powerful God could intercede in human events, but perhaps he only does so when it serves a specific purpose in His plans.

Perhaps death, no matter how tragic in human terms, is merely another brief stop on the road to eternity. And perhaps the glory and joy that await us beyond death’s door make even the most painful demise nothing more than a mosquito bite in this life. And in that hope, we can mourn our loss, and at the same time celebrate in the knowledge that our lost child has earned a head start on the journey to spiritual bliss.