Hear the Corollary

I was in a meeting the other day.  A woman was talking about her experience as her husband was sick. She said that many people were praying for his healing, as she was, but that God has answered their prayers with “no.” Her husband had died. She had found God’s presence afterwards and was grateful for it.  Another person in the meeting told her that she should consider God’s response to the prayers as a compliment - that God was responded the way God did because she was strong in her faith and was able to persevere.

I said in the meeting that my theory is that sometimes bad things happen, and that God never says “no” to us; that God always answers “yes” with God’s presence. Horrible things happen, but God never abandons us in the suffering. I didn’t say, but I will tell you, that I call this my “sh*t happens” theory.

I believe this because the corollary to the other theory - that the woman’s experience was a compliment to her from God - is horrible to contemplate. Do you hear the opposite? That if her faith had been less strong, if she had been less strong, that God would have healed her husband? I won’t and can’t believe that.

I think the same thing when someone says, “God has been good to me, and has healed me from my illness. God must have plans for me yet.” I’m sure God does have plans for everyone. That said, imagine how someone who has lost someone to a car accident or an illness must hear that kind of faith.  I think they would hear the corollary: God didn’t have plans for your loved one, so God allowed him or her to die.

What may sound comforting to us would be horribly painful to someone in a different circumstance.