From the March Newsletter

Here is my column from this month's Highlands' Beat. This is the unabridged version, or director's cut if you will.

For the past couple months, I have had the opportunity to serve as a volunteer with the Click group on Wednesday nights. It’s been a great opportunity to work with Tyler Sotebeer, other volunteers and get to know our high schoolers better. It’s also provided plenty of food for thought.

The group has tackled some tough and important topics, including a recent look at the problem of evil. Doubtless the question of how God can allow people to suffer is one that all Christians struggle with at some point. When natural disasters, such as the recent earthquake in Haiti, or smaller, more personal tragedies occur we all struggle to understand why.

As many of you know, I’m a big movie buff. I took film theory, screenwriting and production classes in college and have had the opportunity to serve as film reviewer for the Paso Robles Press since 2003.

I think film, like all art forms, offers a window into the social consciousness of the times. Over the past few years I’ve noticed that, if our films are any indication of the mood of our culture, people are feeling more lost than ever and searching for ways to fill a void in their lives. Part of it is this search for meaning and an attempt to understand their suffering.

On March 7 Hollywood will celebrate its “best” offerings with the Academy Awards. And, as in year’s past, there are many difficult, thought provoking films in the running. One of the most difficult is “Precious,” which tells the story of a 16-year-old girl living in Harlem who suffered tremendously at the hand of those who were supposed to love and protect her. Yet she somehow found the will to persevere.

But as Christians, it’s not always easy for us to understand how tragic events and suffering fit into God’s plan. Without that understanding, it’s easy to feel lost.

That feeling was demonstrated in a recent Best Picture winner, “No Country For Old Men.” In that film, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) struggles with the notion of evil in the world. From the very outset of the film, Bell is struggling to reconcile his belief in a higher power with the evil deeds he sees in the course of his job.

At one point he says, “I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He'd have to say, ‘O.K., I'll be part of this world.’”

In the end, Bell can’t reconcile his doubt and ends up resigning and withdrawing from the world, more lost than ever.

But God works everything according to his will. While we might not be able to see it in the moment, God can use anything, even a tragedy, for his glory. My favorite example of this is Horatio Spafford.

In 1871, Spafford’s one son died. Later, he was financially ruined in the great Chicago Fire. In 1873, Spafford, his wife, Anna, and his four daughters were to travel to Europe. He was bogged down in work, so Spafford sent Anna and his daughters ahead of him. While crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the ship carrying Spafford’s family collided with another ship and sank. Anna was saved and sent her husband a telegram containing two words, “Saved alone.”

In response to a tragedy most of us can’t even imagine, Spafford wrote the hymn “It Is Well.” The first verse reads:

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

More than 100 years later, his words, written during a period of unimaginable sorrow, continue to inspire people of faith all over the world. With God, nothing is impossible.

The Apostle Paul conveys a similar message in Romans 5:3-5, which says, “…but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Though we suffer and struggle, we are not alone.