Billy Graham (White House photo)
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – There are 20,000 students at my alma mater, Syracuse University. When I attended about 50 of us went to Sunday morning church services. And the numbers were even worse than that. Some people sat through the service because they were friends and family of the outstanding Hendricks Chapel Choir, which performed each week.
And then, in December of 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland. 270 people died. Among them were 35 Syracuse University students who were returning from a semester abroad in Europe.
Rev. Billy Graham had planned a week-long crusade in Syracuse that year. The planning was well underway long before the terror attack. But on the Sunday before the crusade began, Billy Graham paid a visit to our small student-congregation. Several people asked the obvious question: “Why does God allow such evil to happen?”
I remember Rev. Graham’s response after all this time. He said two things; the first should be obvious. When someone blows up an airplane, that’s not God’s work, it’s Satan’s.
But the other part of his answer is more complicated. It comes from the Book of Job, who was a righteous man who questioned God about why he’s lost his earthly fortune and become physically ill. God answers Job, although the answer may be unsatisfying. “I am God. You are not. You can not possibly understand my ways or my purposes.” Dr. Graham suggested that we should be thankful that we don’t understand God’s “whys”. If we did, he told us, then we would be God. We’d have no use for faith – we’d already know all the mysteries of the God of Abraham. Going to church would be a waste of time; there’d be nothing for us to learn there. Pray? If we already knew which prayers God would answer and which ones he wouldn’t, praying becomes pointless.
The Psalmist confesses to God, “Your ways are too high for me. I cannot understand.”
Billy Graham helped me make peace with why evil things happen in this world. Of course, I should do everything I can for good. But I’m not God. I’m not made to understand “why,” and I am grateful for that.
Chris Conley
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