Undeniable

Can I be honest? Sometimes I have doubts. Sometimes my faith is put to the test. Sometimes I have questions that I can’t wrap my head around- some of those questions deal with just looking at current events. When I read about the news or see what is going on around the world, sometimes I ask myself, “Where in the world is God in all of this?” I mean, take for example, how can we see such an overwhelming pandemic of drug addiction, and suicide in our communities? Where is God in that? How can a man take the life of another man just because of the color of his skin? Where is God in that? And then you talk about all the global problems. You’ve got child sex trafficking, and you’ve got a virus wiping out hundreds of thousands of people, and you’ve got kids and people who die daily because they don’t have access to clean drinking water. And you’ve got huge earthquakes, and the list goes on and on. And I’m wondering, “Where is God in that? Can you see Him when there are so many things that you just don’t understand? I struggle with this. I’m just talking from my spirit.

The truth is you don’t have to understand everything to believe in something, because the reality is, there may be a lot of things that are unexplainable, but there are also a lot of things that are undeniable. And so in John Chapter 9, verse 1 we see Jesus walking along when he comes upon a man who has been blind since birth. Can you imagine being blind from birth? This man couldn’t be educated, couldn’t get a job, and actually was a beggar on the street all because he was born without sight. We continue in verse 2 when the disciples ask Jesus “Rabbi, who sinned? This man, or his parents that he was born blind?”. See, in those days people believed that if you developed or were born with some sort of physical disability it was because God was punishing you for something either you or your family did wrong. Some people still believe that today, don’t they? How many times have you heard “That’s karma”, right? Guy is flying down the road weaving through traffic in his flashy sports car and you see him flipped over in a ditch five miles down the road, “that’s karma”. Convicted murderer gets killed in a jail fight, “karma”. It must have been your fault. You must have did something. But Jesus responds in verse 3 this way: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened. This guy was born blind. This tragedy happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. “ This guy was born blind, spent his whole life begging. Why? So that God could be glorified through what we would call a tragedy. Can you see this, because in God’s economy, what we often call setbacks are actually set-ups for Him to be glorified- and you can see it all through scripture.

We see it in the life of a young boy named Joseph in the Old Testament when God said, “Hey, one day you’re going to be a leader over people,” and the very next day his brothers beat him up, threw him in the bottom of a well, and said, “Should we kill him or sell him?” They decided to sell him into slavery. He’s falsely accused and going to prison. In our world it’s a setback, in God’s world it’s a setup.

David, a little shepherd boy, God said, “You’re going to be king one day. Now, go tend sheep.” You’ve got to fight a giant.” Setback? God says, “No, setup.” Even the sin of adultery, setback? And God says, “Yes, but also, I am working in it. Setup to break you, to make you repentant and to solidify that you will for the rest of your life be a man after My very own heart.”

Jesus, Savior of the world, crucified. Setback? No, setup so that God might be glorified. You see, here’s the deal. Scripture says, “We see through a glass that’s dim.” We don’t see it all. We only know in part. God knows all. The Bible says His ways are higher than our ways. We don’t have to understand everything to believe in some thing.

So we go to verse 6 and Jesus does something we may not totally understand. The bible says “He spit on the ground, made some mud with saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes.” then Jesus says to the man “Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam.” so the man went and washed the mud from his eyes and the bible says “He came home seeing!”.

Verses 8-10, the Bible says, “His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, ‘Now, isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?’ “Some claimed, ‘I think he was.’ Others said, “No, he only looks like him.’ But he himself insisted, ‘I am the man. It’s me! Then they say now, wait a second. We don’t understand this. How then were your eyes opened? They demanded an answer. This can’t be real because we don’t understand it.

Verse 13-14 So, “They brought to the Pharisees this man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath.” Which raised some eyebrows because “healing” was considered work, and it was illegal to work on the Sabbath. Verse 15, “Therefore the Pharisees also asked him, ‘How did you receive sight?’ And you can imagine this man shaking during this interrogation and he just kind of nervously replies “I don’t know! All I know is He put mud on my eyes, I washed it off, and now I see.” Verse 16, some of the Pharisees said, “This man, Jesus, He’s not from God, for he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” They didn’t understand, therefor they couldn’t believe, nor could they explain it. So they summoned the man a second time saying ‘Give glory to God, not to that guy named Jesus. because We know this man, Jesus. He is obviously a sinner. We don’t understand and so it’s obvious He’s not from God. He’s a sinner.” And this blind guy, who can now see, replied,”Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I know is I was blind but now I see!” I don’t know whether He’s a sinner or not. I don’t know whether it is right on this whole Sabbath thing. I don’t know whether, you know, He’s really from God or not. I don’t know. There are many things I don’t understand, but there is one thing that is undeniable and that is thirty minutes ago I was blind, and now I can see!

So while I admit that sometimes doubt creeps into my mind, even though I admit I have questions about the things I don’t understand, there are so many things that are undeniable. “Well, I prayed for this and then it didn’t happen. I saw this on the news and I couldn’t figure it out,” or, “Theologically, I had this question, but I’m just not quite sure.” Remember that you don’t have to understand everything, to believe that God is on the throne, and He sent His Son that you might have life and live more abundantly, and any life outside of Him is an empty life.

It’s undeniable to me that we all have this innate passion to find meaning to our lives. And it’s undeniable to me that no amount of money and no job and no relationship and no experience and no material thing can fill that thing that God shaped void, because it is undeniable that there’s something more. So whenever you don’t understand whatever that is, you have two options. You can say, “Where is God in this?” and let it shake your faith, or what you could say is, “Oh, this is bad. Oh, I don’t really understand, but what if this happened so that the work of God might be displayed?

We don’t have to understand everything to believe in something.