ANSWERS
I have a
friend who has all the answers. That’s
right. It does not matter what the
question is, she has the answer. Of
course, sometimes I find her answers a bit dubious, a bit questionable. But she always has an answer for whatever my
objection is.
I teach
public speaking at a technical college.
When my students give persuasive speeches, they must have a question and
answer period at the end of their speeches.
The audience is given a chance to ask for clarification or a chance to
challenge the speaker’s conclusions. I
always prepare the students for the question session by saying, “Don’t be
afraid of the questions. If you have
prepared thoroughly you will know your material and the questions will not be a
problem. But most importantly, you don’t have to have an answer for
everything. It is perfectly alright for
you to say, ‘I am sorry. I don’t know
the answer to that. My research did not
mention that.’ You don’t have to have an
answer for every question.”
In these
last few weeks and months, I have been confronted with one situation after
another for which I have no answers.
These situations have rocked my world.
I confess to you that I have been angry.
I have looked for the imprecatory Psalms and addressed God with the
words of a few. (Imprecatory Psalms,
according to Theopedia.com, are “those Psalms that contain curses or prayers
for the punishment of the psalmist’s enemies.
To imprecate means to invoke evil upon, or curse.) “Destroy them in wrath, destroy them that they
may be no more!”—Psalm 59; “O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth!”—Psalm
58; “Let his days be few. . . . Let his children be fatherless and his wife a
widow!”—Psalm 109. I guess you can tell
that I am angry.
But in
addition to my anger, I am helpless. I
cannot change the situations, nor do I have answers for either my questions or
others’ questions. I cannot explain why
God has allowed these situations. I have
wept and questioned. In fact, I
have confirmed that the older I get, the fewer answers I have, the less I know,
the less I understand.
Last
week a Scripture passage took on a new meaning for me. I Corinthians 13 is called “the love
chapter.” I took comfort in a different
part of the chapter. I Corinthians 13:11
and 12, “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child,
reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then
face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have
been fully known.” Someday I will know
fully, just as I also have been fully known.
Someday I will understand things that are incomprehensible now. Someday I will have some answers. (I am not even sure that I will need answers
then.)
Who knows me fully now? Only God.
Psalm 139:2-4 says, “You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and
are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it
all.” Babbie Mason’s song says, “When
you don’t understand, when you can’t see His plan, when you can’t trace His
hand, trust His heart.” So for now, I
have no answers, but I will trust His heart.
~~Faith
Himes Lamb
