Questions Without Answers
By Susan Klein
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
Psalm 55:8
Every once in awhile, I stumble across a passage of Scripture that shakes me to the core! It causes me to question the things I’ve been taught and hold as truth. Just when I think I’ve come up with a valid explanation and have it all figured out, another verse shows up that rattles my understanding and causes me to question once again. Isn’t that the way of it: The more you learn, the more questions you come up with?
Stephen Curtis Chapman expresses these sentiments in the lyrics to his song, “God is God.”
And the pain falls like a curtain
On the things I once called certain
And I have to say the words I fear the most
”I just don’t know”
And the questions without answers
Come and paralyze the dancer
So I stand here on the stage afraid to move...
On the things I once called certain
And I have to say the words I fear the most
”I just don’t know”
And the questions without answers
Come and paralyze the dancer
So I stand here on the stage afraid to move...
In our human and finite minds, we want to reason, to solve, and to strive to come up with the answers to all of life’s perplexities. But in reality, we can’t. We can’t explain why a God who expresses unfathomable mercy and love is the same God who wipes out a whole nation of people or sends an evil spirit to inhabit a king (1Samuel 16:14-15). We don’t have an explanation as to why He chooses to let some live to ripe old ages and some die as infants. But what we do know is this, that the Most High is sovereign. He is God, and He can do as He pleases (Job 23:13).
God is God and I am not
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God
I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting
God is God and I am man
So I’ll never understand it all
For only God is God
Do I still have questions? Absolutely! Will I ever find answers? Only if He chooses to provide them. And if He doesn’t, I will cling to my faith, I will still choose to worship Him, and I will accept His will as sovereign, even if I don’t understand it, or like it.
Oh, how great are the riches of His wisdom and knowledge
How unsearchable for to Him and through Him and from Him are all things
So let us worship before the throne
Of the One who is worthy of worship alone
How unsearchable for to Him and through Him and from Him are all things
So let us worship before the throne
Of the One who is worthy of worship alone
For only God is God (1)
GOING DEEPER:
1. Are you someone who needs to have all her questions answered? Are you willing to surrender to the only One who possesses all the answers, even when He’s choosing to remain silent on the matter?
FURTHER READING:
Daniel 4:34-35; Psalm 71:14-16; Romans 9:14-16
(1) Steven Curtis Chapman, “God is God,” Declaration, 2001, Sparrow Records.
Susan is We Women's Tuesday Morning Bible Study Coordinator and one of its teachers. She and her husband Mark lead a couples' small group in their home; she is also involved in inner city outreach.
