When everything in life is right and you’re perfectly happy, have you ever found yourself crying out to the Devil: “My Satan, my Satan, why have you abandoned me?  Why are allowing so many good things

to happen to me?  Why are allowing me to be so happy?”  Probably not.  But why not?  We do cry out to God this way when we suffer, when we feel overwhelmed by life, when we feel like He’s giving us too

much to handle.  Why do we protest to Him why we suffer, but never think to complain when everything is going right? 

If this question has never occurred to you, that’s because of the way you’re wired.  In a way that is unique to the human species, we don’t simply accept the way things are, but relentlessly press toward the way things “should” be.  We don’t think it’s “right” that we should suffer.  We don’t think it’s right that God would allow us to suffer.  We think God should orchestrate the world in a way that eliminates evil and pain.  We don’t think the world is right the way it is and we believe that God, if He’s good, if He exists, should make it right.   

We don’t cry out to Him when all is well because this is how we are wired to think things should be.  But when life throws us more than we can handle, we complain mightily.  We question His love for us.  We even question His existence.

But has it ever occurred to you how unnatural this is?  Where did we ever get the idea that life should be any different than it is?  From nature to history, the only thing our accumulated human experience teaches us is that we should only expect a mix of good and evil.  We should only expect to experience a mix of good times and bad times, intense happiness and intense sadness.  Actually, nature and history tend to be more cruel and tragic than anything.  If they teach us anything, it is to expect that any Creator who might exist is completely indifferent to us. 

So why do we expect God to be good?  Why do we expect that He should love us?

Like the rest of nature, no matter what happens in our lives, we should just say, “It is what it is”, and move on.  But we don’t.  We protest.  We complain.  Like a hurt child, we cry out to God: “How could you let this happen to me?  How could you do this to me?”

But here’s the stunning thing about all of this: Without some kind of transcendent awareness of a God who loves us—what theologians and philosophers call a “pre-apprehension” of a perfect reality that transcends anything we experience in this world—we would never protest.  The thought would never cross our mind.  We would never feel so wounded.  It would never occur to us to complain to Him.  We would just say, “It is what it is” and move on. 

The only reason we’re like this is because God made us for that reality.  He made us to expect more—infinitely more. 

So, the fact that you cry out to God like a wounded child when you suffer is proof He exists.  It’s proof that He does, in fact, love you. 

Of course, some philosophers have argued that we are wired this way because of natural selection.  That it’s just a faculty we developed as an adaptive response.  Next week I’ll share how one of the most prominent atheist philosophers of our day has shown that this is a completely inadequate explanation. 

Has it ever occurred to you how unnatural it is for us to expect the world to be different than it is?  I would love to hear your thoughts.  You can go to the “Contact E.J.” page of the Raising Jesus website and leave them there.  Also, please “Like” our Facebook page and “Subscribe” to our YouTube channel.  Thank you!