Around the time our third son joined the family, a dear church friend started a preschool for a small group of children, including our oldest son. Debbie used all sorts of creative tools and techniques to challenge these bright youngsters.
One day she showed them a photograph of a recent earthquake, asking what they thought caused it. My son, using his almost four years of acquired wisdom, decided that snakes were the perpetrators. When Debbie challenged that hypothesis, he decided, “Bees, then! It must be bees!”
It seems perfectly logical to a youngster that a giant den of snakes or a swarm of subterranean bees might indeed cause the earth to shake. Until they learn greater truths, children stick with what makes sense to them.
Unfortunately, some adults have reached equally misinformed conclusions about life. For example, many blame God for all that’s gone wrong in their lives and in the world. Their limited mindset allows for no other option.
However, the Bible reveals three possible culprits behind adversity: the world, the flesh, and the devil.
First, we live in a fallen world (Genesis 1-3). What we now experience is not what God intended. His original design included abundant provision, meaningful work, health, and peaceful relationships–with God’s love at the center of everything. Man’s disobedience in Eden (the fall) disrupted that plan, ushering in negative forces such as poverty, unemployment (or unfulfilling work), strife, and disease. The world’s self-reliant, godless philosophy (increasingly perpetuated by the media) naturally produces bad fruit. In this broken system, disappointment, frustration, and heartache come with the territory.
Because of the fall, we also suffer from our own innate self-centeredness and that of others. Just watch any obstinate two-year-old responding “No!” to a parent’s instruction. Selfishness and stubbornness are part of fallen human nature–our flesh. Paul expressed it well in Romans 7–a vivid picture of our constant battle against the flesh.
Finally, one particularly devious individual goes about wreaking havoc all over the world, like a bully in a playground! Jesus accurately described Satan as the father of lies (John 8:44). True to form, Satan twisted scripture to trick Eve in the Garden (Gen. 3:1-7). Using similar tactics he unsuccessfully tried to deceive Jesus (Luke 4:1-13). To this day the devil continues to undermine and distort the Word of God, duping even believers. And the more people fall for his deception, the more troubled their lives, and the lives they touch.
Armed with this knowledge, we can accurately point to the world’s godless mindset, our flesh, or the devil as the culprit behind the evil around us. Just as a child comes to a more accurate understanding of the world over time, we need to grow in our understanding of God’s nature. Knowing God never ordained our pain or misery reassures us of His goodness and love and enables us to trust Him for the comfort, wisdom, and direction we need.
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things (I Corinthians 13:10-11).
God sent His Son to offer life more abundantly (John 10:10) not to destroy our lives.
