Better Dads Better Kids

When I played college baseball at St. Xavier, our coach was a big believer in team building.  He put us through endurance tests that he knew would be difficult for the team to finish.  His intent was that we would be tougher mentally and physically and would learn to work together to endure the tough times of the season.  I was never a person that was built for endurance, so these practices seemed especially hard on me.

One of his favorite exercises was to make us run wind sprints.  Just when you thought you couldn't run one more, he would say:  "You're done, if you play at…" and he would name one of the other schools in our conference.  Of course, we'd keep running.  Then he'd say it again, listing another school's name.  Some nights, he'd go through the entire conference before we could stop.     

I'd ask myself, "Why does this man hate me so much?"  Then the coach would end with a speech, in which he gave us this message:  because you have worked harder, you deserve more.  You have earned the right to be a part of this team and to be a champion.  

I look back at pictures from that time and realize that I was in the best shape of my life.

As we remember 9/11 and see other tragedies around the world, you hear the question asked, "Where is God?"  I believe God looks at life in a similar way to how our coach looked at practice.  How do you get strong physically?  By lifting weights.  How do you get stronger mentally and spiritually?  By handling the weights of a life that doesn't always go as expected. 

At my mom's funeral, Pastor Wray preached on Luke 23:43, where Jesus tells the repentant sinner on the cross "today you will be with me in Paradise."  I believe that my mom and the others who profess Christ are in a heaven that is a paradise.  We don't earn our way to heaven; it is a free gift of God through his grace.  However, we do have to stay committed to the team.   

Sometimes, it's hard to understand what the coach is trying to do or what God's plan is.  But, I believe that God does have a plan.  My human mind can't explain an event like 9/11 or how someone like Rachel Scott is the first to die at Columbine.  However, it helps me to realize that life is God's test for us.  If we stay committed to the team, God will reveal his glory in heaven.

Focus on the Family recently authored a similar devotion.  

Job was a "blameless and upright man" (Job 1:1) who fell subject to terrible sufferings in spite of his righteous character. He lost seven sons, three daughters, and all his property in a single day. After that, he was deprived of his health and his self-respect simply because Satan thought it would be interesting to see how he'd respond. And God allowed it to happen.

Was that fair? Was it just, loving, and kind of the Creator to stand aside and let this avalanche of tragedy and pain come crashing down on the head of a good man?

The remarkable thing—the thing we need to remember whenever we find ourselves in Job's position—is that the question never receives a direct answer. In fact, when God speaks to Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:1), He treats the question as if it's beside the point. Justice is not the issue, He seems to say. Life in a fallen world can never be "fair."

In the final analysis, God does not answer the problem of unjust human suffering by explaining it. Instead, He enters into it. In the person of Jesus Christ He experiences what it is like to be unfairly accused, arrested, tried, condemned, beaten, reviled, spit upon and put to death. An innocent Man, He bears the penalty while Barabbas, a criminal and an assassin, goes free. He takes upon Himself the burden of our anguish and pain. He drinks the cup to its dregs without murmur or complaint. In so doing, He demonstrates His love for us and sends us this unmistakable message: the answer to the problem of suffering can't be discovered by means of theological rationalization. The answer to the problem is Jesus.