Sometimes it seems that there are more questions than answers... more things that don't make sense than that do. Things where, even, when I know God is at work and in control, it doesn't seem that way, things which make me want to cry out "Where are You in this God?", "What are You doing here?", "Why is this happening?" Things which just seem to confuse and confound and destabilise.
Again and again this Lent things seem to be coming back to these words from Isaiah --
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
-- because things seem to be happening around me which just don't make sense.
At the end of the day though, I don't think God minds the questions. I think he's big enough to take my confusion, to take my questions, to let me ask the "Why?" questions that don't seem to have obvious answers. After all, as all parents know, their children love to ask "Why?", and as parents we just have to be patient with those Why questions, answering those we can and recognising that sometimes, the answer is just too complicated for the asker to comprehend.
Of course, as parents we also recognise that sometimes our children are too busy asking the "Why?" questions to actually listen to the answer. Maybe we need to remember that when we're asking questions of God - perhaps, when I've ranted, questioned, despaired and complained enough, I need to shut up for a few minutes and listen - maybe God actually will answer. But even if he doesn't I need to remeber those words of Isaiah once more, and to trust that He knows what He's doing, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense in the eyes of "Impatient from Coventry".
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