Tyler Johnson, MDiv
Tyler is a pastor and a former NASA engineer. He loves to explore truth through God’s word and God’s works. He lives in Iowa with his wife and four children and spends what little free-time he has pondering the mysteries of light.
If you haven’t read the book of Job, I would recommend it. It is found somewhere near the middle of most Bibles and it is a 40-something chapter epic. It isn’t really a story, it isn’t a song or a bunch of instructions. Instead, Job is something like an ancient theological debate. (You’re excited to read it now, aren’t you!) It is all set in the context of a story about a man named Job and his family and friends, but most of his family dies off in the first couple chapters and aren’t really vital to the book. In fact, after chapter two there isn’t much of a story at all. Instead there are chapters and chapters of detailed debates and discussions about why bad things happened to such a good person like Job. Job and his friends spend thirty-five chapters debating back-and-forth why Job’s life was rent in two and who’s to blame for it. Surely, Job had done something wrong, his friends insisted, since such calamity had come his way. God was punishing him. But throughout the book Job maintains his innocence. Finally, in chapter 38, God arrives on the scene (speaking out of a tornado nonetheless) and for the next four chapters God tells Job what’s up.
I once taught a course on the Old Testament for a community college. It was a secular school so I had the privilege of teaching the Bible as a historical document, rather than inspired scripture; it was a good exercise. When we got to the book of Job, I asked my students to read a few select chapters that would give them a sense of the book, and then I asked them to answer a simple question: “Did God answer Job?” Job was at his absolute lowest point in life; he had hit rock bottom. Then in the midst of Job’s dark night of the soul God showed up, but did he answer Job?
It’s a fascinating question because the answer has to be “no”. God doesn’t answer Job, at least not in the way that Job wanted Him to. God doesn’t explain why bad things happen to good people. God doesn’t pull back the veil and reveal to Job the hidden machinations of heaven so that Job could see the whole picture and be satisfied that his pain and loss made sense in a larger story. God does quite the opposite in fact. He ignores all of Job’s questions and invites Job to wonder. Instead of answering Job’s questions, God asks him a slew of His own questions (more than 60 by my count). God draws Job’s attention away from himself, away from his pain and away from his pining after who’s to blame, and God draws Job into awe and wonder of God and God’s creation.
We live in a world full of facts and data, but sorely lacking in awe and wonder. My sister and I firmly believe that the Reality we live in is too great to be reduced to data, and that the fullest Truth requires both facts and wonder. The great 20th-century Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova was once asked the meaning of a dance she had just performed. To this question she replied “If I could say it, do you think I should have danced it?” The truth conveyed in her dance was something more than facts or data could communicate. It required beauty and movement. It required transcendence and, in a way, it required not understanding. Job receives a similar answer from God. Job was coming up against things too great for him. The only proper response was to acknowledge his ignorance and stand in awe of who God is.
Facts and data bring us great comfort, but they only reveal a part of the reality we find ourselves in. There is much we do not understand, both theologically, but also scientifically. God is still inviting us into wonder and awe of Himself and the world He created. This path comes with more questions than it does answers. It can be scary to venture into the unknown. But there is a promise that comes with this journey: that we find a God that is truly worthy of our worship. Because the truth is, we simply cannot worship a God that we have reduced to a set of facts, data, and dogma.
This promise was made real to me while I was teaching that Old Testament class. One of my students was a life-long Christian who was very involved in her church and had studied the Bible extensively. She had also suffered much in her life, and some had called her a modern day Job. She wasn’t fond of that title. My assignment on the book of Job struck her deeply. She hated the question I had posed and fought against doing the assignment. I listened to her story and her objections, but did not change the question. So she engaged it. She begrudgingly asked the hard questions that had weighed on her soul for years. A couple days later I received an email from her. Here is part of what she wrote:
I just wanted to thank you for pushing me, for trying to get me to see God in a different light, to ask the questions I am terrified to ask. In my experience, if you question or don't agree, you are discarded. So, I never allowed myself to ask the "hard" questions of God and when you pushed me to try, it terrified me…I have finally begun to ask the hard questions, and against my previous knowledge, it has IMPROVED my relationship with God! I am back to reading my Bible, praying, and talking to God.
By allowing herself to wonder, and to ask hard questions of God and the Bible, this student once again found a God that was worthy of her worship.
This is why we say that Not All Who Wonder are Lost. We believe wondering and questioning and even doubting are essential to the Christian life. We invite you to journey with us as we seek faithful and intelligent answers to life’s hard questions. Peruse our blog and send us your questions. We’d love to hear from you!