Our Daily Bread: Finding Comfort in Times of Loss Sampel

Suspended Judgement

A mother wrote me that she had prayed daily for the safety of her son, but one day he was killed in an accident on the job. “For the past 4 years,” she said, “I have been searching for the answer to why.” In another family, a sudden heart attack snatched Ray from Sylvia’s side, leaving her to face life alone. When my wife and I visited her at the funeral home, we were met by a woman who was grieving but not asking God for an explanation.

What made the difference? Was it wrong for that mother to question God? Not at all! Sylvia too must have wondered about God’s purpose in this tragedy. But from experience she had come to know Him to be completely trustworthy. She could suspend judgment. “I don’t need to ask why,” she told us.

Jeremiah expressed much the same response in today’s Scripture. Everything looked as if God had abandoned him, yet he said, “I hope in Him.” His faith was no irrational leap in the dark. Sound reasons based on experience backed it.

To suspend judgment when God is silent honors Him because it refuses to charge Him with being unjust. Those who express such faith are strengthened by God’s Spirit and learn how strong and good God really is. —Dennis De Haan

The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears.