"I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?" C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces.If you are at all like me, often when life overwhelms you, you become somewhat frantic, looking everywhere for a solution and a reason for the pain. If we remain in such a state for any length of time, it will begin to damage our souls. I believe that God, in His grace, generally allows us to know the reason for our suffering. Yet, there are clearly times when we can not discern the reason for our pain, and never will. At times like this, what is a person to do? If we take C.S. Lewis's advice here, we are simply to sit back and gaze in wonder at the greatness of God, despite not hearing the answer to our question.
This quote reminds me of Psalm 46. In that Psalm, the sons of Korah talk about, "the earth changing", "mountains slipping into the sea", and "nations making an uproar." Yet, the Psalmists call upon us to, "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10).
The clearest example of this is Job. Job suffered devastation upon devastation. The vast majority of the book is Job asking, "Why? What have I done?" God never answers Job. Essentially, God tells Job to, "be quiet and know that I am God." And Job's response? "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees Thee; therefore, I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6).
As our world is falling down around us, if we remain in the anxiety for too long, we will damage our hearts. Instead, even when we do not understand why something is happening, we need to step back and remind ourselves that God is on the throne. As we gaze at that throne, our hearts become still, and the thing so of this world, "will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."
This is something that I constantly need to remind myself. How about you?
