Blog Post: When You Find Yourself Asking God “Why?”

I have revisited this blog post after starting it six months ago. Admittedly, I only got halfway through writing it before giving up. The topic of asking God “why?” felt like something I haven’t figured out enough to write about. Even now, after I have processed more on this topic, I still have my “why’s” that I don’t feel fully answered. Revisiting this post has reminded me that some of us may always carry “why’s” that won’t feel resolved on this side of heaven, however, that should not stop any of us from asking God our “why’s” and searching for His answers. 

The list of “why God?” can become exhaustive. Questions we can ask Him can come in a variety of packages:

• Why did you allow that to happen?
• Why didn’t you stop that?
• Why did that person have to die?
• Why did they get sick?
• Why hasn’t my situation changed?
• Why am I where I am in life?
• Why has that person not changed?
• Why am I not better?
• Why am I not healed?
• Why are they not healed?
• Why has my life ended up this way?

Why. Why. Why?

One of the biggest opposers to our faith is “why.” I know this because I have lived life with my fair share of why’s. And for a long time, I have allowed those why’s to stand in my way of having a closer relationship with Jesus. I have felt that He owed me an explanation as to why He would allow bad things to happen to me. I stood on my stronghold of “why’s,” holding on to my right to understand. God was God and He had every power to stop evil from entering my life. And yet He didn’t. And I needed to know why. 

As I have gone through my own journey of seeking answers to this question, I have realized I am not alone. There are countless stories in the Bible of people who have also asked God why.

Biblical Examples of Asking God “Why?”

Job asks God “why”, in Job 7:20 he asks “Why make me your target?” The book of Job is filled with Job processing and asking God about the pain and suffering that had come into His life. In the end, God answers Job. Just not in the way Job expects. God answers Job by explaining how great He is and how Job possibly can’t come up with answers to some of life’s most challenging questions. Job has a real encounter with the living God and realizes that in the grandeur and greatness of God, his questions do not measure up. In Job 42:3 & 5, Job says, “I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me…I have only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.” Job’s encounter with God doesn’t answer his questions but it does put in perspective that as a human, he can’t claim to understand the expansive mysteries of the Creator of the Universe including always understanding “why?”

Jesus’ disciples also ask Jesus “why?” In John 9:2, the disciples encounter a man born blind and ask Jesus “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” This time, Jesus actually does give them an answer, just not the answer they were expecting. Jesus says, “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” Jesus’ answer is profound and similar to Job, God doesn’t focus on the pain of the situation and dig for answers on the root of why this man was suffering. Instead, Jesus shifts the focus to how God’s greatness will be revealed through the man’s life. The question isn’t about the cause of the pain but what God will do with it.

I can’t help but wonder what that man born blind had experienced his whole life as he wrestled with why he was born with that condition. I have wondered so much about it that I actually wrote a short story imagining his perspective here. I can guess that he struggled with his own “why.” Can you imagine living with that unanswered “why” for so long, only to hear Jesus Himself provide the reason? And then experiencing an encounter with the Healer and receiving your sight back? 

Encountering God in the Midst of Mystery

I see myself in these stories as I believe many of us do. Despite deep devotion to God, many of us still have our “why’s.” And despite religious pretenses of not wanting to outwardly look unbelieving, deep down we also want to ask God why certain things have happened in our life. And as I said before, some of us have even put our why’s as a wall to any further exploration of faith. 

I have learned to put my “why’s” into the box of mystery, similar to how Job responded to his encounter with the Lord. In doing so, I learned to make peace with my “why’s.” Yet, I have also learned to not stop dialoging with God about my “why’s.” Because as we have seen through biblical examples, God does have a response to our questions, just not usually the answer we would expect. Through these conversations with the Lord, we begin to grasp—at least to the extent our human understanding allows—that God has a plan to reveal His power and glory in the very places of pain that led to our “why’s” in the first place.

So, I encourage you to keep asking God your “why’s,” as I am confident that you will not be disappointed with the answers He reveals in time.