I was going through Lee Strobel’s latest book The Case for Miracles last week. The final chapter in the book was a poignant discussion entitled: “When miracles don’t happen.”
In that chapter, Strobel interviews Douglas Groothuis who’s a professor at Denver Seminary. In the interview, they talk about the health of Groothuis’s wife Becky, a Mensa member and author who developed a rare form of dementia which impacts the brain’s ability to recall words.
In the interview, they talk of day to day challenges of seeing his wife taken from him. The interview talked about faith, spirituality, lament, and hope.
I was particularly struck by one of the answers Groothuis gave. Strobel asked “Do you feel like if you were God, you would definitely heal Becky?”
“God is perfect and he acts accordingly. If I were God, I’d be perfect – and therefore I’d act in the very same way he does. We might not understand why he does what he does, but it’s folly to think we’d do things better.”
I found that to be brilliant and insightful. It’s easy for us to look to things in God’s rule of creation and to think it could be done better or should be done differently. But God is righteous and eternal. At times, it can be very hard to see the good in the struggles of our lives. At times, it’s hard to see the goodness of God in the wrongs others afflict on us.
Groothuis saw a brilliant woman lose her mental faculties and pass away at just 59 years of age. But the faith to trust that God is still good in that. To trust that God is so good that his plan cannot be improved upon in spite of all of the bad, all of the evil, all of the suffering in our world. God still works that for good. God still weaves that into his plans and uses it for his own glory.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
In his book the Problem of Pain, CS Lewis sums up what I think many would agree with: “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of our Lord’s own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason.”
We’re fine with the idea of a loving God, but we’re less accepting of a God who judges.
With the idea of hell, It can seem unfair. We can feel tempted to justify why hell doesn’t exist. Or maybe we think that hell is really just for people who are really, really bad. (more…)
Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to relive the moment that we don’t really live it the first time.
I was watching Evel Live Sunday night, when daredevil Travis Pastrana was breaking some of Evel Knievel’s records. The culmination of the event was Pastrana taking a ramp and jumping the fountains at Ceasar’s Palace, something Knievel was seriously injured attempting in 1967.
Look at this picture.
It’s like a Where’s Waldo for anyone who’s actually watching without looking at this stunt through a screen.
We miss out on so much because we get so focused on trying to capture moments that I worry we don’t really live them at the time. I’m not saying this to judge. I can be terrible with this.
I love photography and capturing pictures. And obviously there’s nothing wrong with pictures. But I feel like our culture (especially my generation and the younger generation), if we don’t have some sort of video or photo of commemorating an event, it’s almost not worth doing. And thats’ a sad thing.
For the people who were at Evel Live, how much time will they really spend rewatching their video? I’m sure they’ll share it on Facebook and Instagram. I’m sure it’ll get likes. But then more things will get shared, and people will forget. And you’ll forget.
There are some great moments where a photo or video will just never do it justice. There are some things that will always be better preserved as a memory. I remember one time when I was in seminary. There was a lockdown on campus (someone had robbed a nearby hotel and there was concern he had come onto campus). I was in class at the time and so the professor had us exit and wait for the all clear in a teacher’s lounge. So what do a bunch of people in seminary do during a lockdown?
We sang hymns. There were a bunch of hymnals in the teachers lounge and we sang various songs. But the one that I remember from that night is “It is well,” one of the most popular Christian hymns in the English language. I don’t have a video of it. I don’t have the audio of it. But to me, the best rendition I’ve ever heard of that song will always be with my class that night.
Was it really that great? Probably not. But in my memory, it sounded almost like an angelic chorus.
Sometimes things are better as memories.
I watched a TED talk a couple weeks ago called “Hello my name is Alecia and I’m a recovering photoholic.” I think she hits the nail on the head when she says that a big part of our obsession with photos isn’t always about capturing a moment for ourselves, but that it’s taking a photo to share on social media just to show people we were there.
Smart phones are an incredible tool that would have been the pride of virtually all of human history. It’s like something out of the future that we have constant connection to the world, news, information, and entertainment in a device that fits in our pocket.
There are rising rates of depression, loneliness, and suicidal thoughts in teenagers and some researchers believe that smart phones are part of the reason in this spike. Smart phones should bring freedom but they often bring self imposed tyranny into our lives. Constantly needing to broadcast ourselves, our thoughts, our pictures and videos. The likes we receive giving us small hits of dopamine, and we get addicted and need more and more.
But it’s not helping us, it’s hurting us.
My point isn’t that we shouldn’t have photos or videos of anything. But do we need them of everything? I see friends who have portraits taking of their kids for a first birthday. Obviously that makes sense. Little kids grow up fast and commemorating moments. For me, I can’t imagine not having photos of my wedding day.
But are the photos we take usually of monumental events?
I’m also not saying that photos are only worth taking on a special occasion. Nor am I judging because I’m terrible with how much time I spend on my phone. It’s something where I see that I need to personally do better. I’ve been trying to do better in the evening at putting my phone away. I’ve deleted certain apps from my phone where I’m prone to spend a lot of time.
I think we need to evaluate the roles that cell phones and technology are playing in our daily lives. I think a good starting place is for us to take more time living in the moment.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
This weekend, Fox News pundit Tomi Lahren (a woman who’s generally conservative-libertarian but who happens to be pro choice) argued that abortion isn’t a battle worth fighting.
In her argument, Lahren says that conservatives lose on social issues. I think this is part of the failure of her argument. The life of an unborn baby is not a “social issue.” It’s a fundamental right that the child has.
She argues that a challenge on Roe vs Wade is unlikely to succeed. That might be true. But does that mean it’s not worth trying?
I don’t think Lahren gets it because she’s. not. pro. life. She’s pro choice and she’s also looking at the issue from a political perspective, what’s expedient, what’ll help get votes.
The argument I find most troubling is that Lahren argues that “it’s not the government’s place to dictate.” It’s not the government’s place to dictate? The government necessarily has to dictate some things with this issue. For instance, for Miss Lahren, at what point is an abortion no longer justified? And who decides that?
If she feels like it’s not the government’s role, wouldn’t a better answer be to leave it up to the states? It’s not like a reversal of Roe would make abortion illegal or dictate to everyone what they can or cannot do.
But I return to my point that the lives of the unborn are worth fighting for. Political popularity doesn’t dictate what’s moral.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
A group of 12 boys in Thailand, accompanied by their soccer coach are trapped in a cave. The boys ages range between 11-16. They had gone into a cave as part of a team initiation ritual. Then the waters came. The group was forced further into the cave. But the waters kept coming. It’s monsoon season.
For nine days, the group was missing.
Some of their belongings had been found at the entrance of the cave and divers found the group on Monday.
Great news! But they’re having issues getting the boys out. More rains have come which have forced them still further into the caves. The plan to get them out has been extremely daunting.
To give some perspective on how difficult the rescue effort is, it had been considered as an option to leave the boys in the cave until the end of the monsoon season. Which is in October!
Tremendous resources are being put into this effort. Military divers, engineers, even Elon Musk is sending a team to assist in the effort.
They’re over a mile into the cave now. None of the boys can swim, let alone dive. For professionally trained military divers, it takes upwards of five hour to make it to the group. And more rain is expected to fall. One retired Thai Navy SEAL diver died yesterday when he ran out of oxygen.
High powered pumps are being used to try to help drain water to lower the levels, but there’s so much water in the cave that that’s having a limited impact.
Imagine how dark a cave can be. And then fill it with water that’s murky and muddy (it’s been likened to trying to swim through cold coffee). And it’s not like you’re swimming down a river. You’re winding through a cave, the elevation going up and down, jagged rocks, places with rushing water. There are places so narrow that people have to go individually.
The boys have had food brought to them in the cave but they’ve still spent almost two weeks in a wet, dark cave. Some of the boys are (not surprisingly, given the circumstances) suffering from exhaustion.
Drilling has also been talked about as an option but the boys are in a cave in a mountain and over a half mile into the mountain. I haven’t seen any estimates on how long it would take to drill, but it’s not like a drill would be able to get to the boys in a few hours. To give some perspective, when the Chilean miners were trapped underground in 2010, the drill (there was more than one drill working in different locations) that ended up providing their way back to the surface, took 35 days! And they’re having issues knowing where exactly would be the best place to drill.
It’s complicated.
It’s like a movie. And most of the movies we see in America have happy endings. And so I think we can take it for granted that this one will too. I hope it does. I pray it does.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
