This Down syndrome blog post explores God and suffering and whether or not God gave my son with Down syndrome a heart defect.
I have been struggling this week with writer’s block. For the first time in a long time, we are not in one of life’s waiting periods. We can just live. But Wednesday. Wednesday we received some heartbreaking news. And I remembered one of the first rules of journalism, “Go where the story takes you.”
The news is not our own, but our dear friends’. When you are military, your friends become your family. Unfortunately, one of our family members received a very tough medical diagnosis for one of their children. They have a long, hard and scary road ahead of them.
When I got off the phone with my friend, I realized I had no words to say. Me of all people, me who walked a similar road with one of my own children, had nothing. But when I got off the phone, I was able to write her what my pastor and mentor told me from the beginning of our own long, hard and scary diagnosis path.
God did not do this to your child.
If you’ve read my blog, you probably know I do not believe in predestination. I believe God has an overall plan for our lives, but I don’t think He premeditates the evils of the world.
I believe we live in a fallen world. A world where men, not God, decide to commit terrible acts. A world where disease does not discriminate. I do not say this to draw a line in the sand. I respect predestination views. I just don’t agree with them.
So, did God give Anderson a heart defect? Did God give her child a life threatening condition? No. No, I do not believe so.
To take an example from Leslie Weatherhead’s The Will of God, If God gives people cancer, then doctors are actively fighting against God’s will when trying to remove a tumor or administer chemotherapy.
Here’s what I do believe about God’s role in Anderson’s heart defect and her child’s diagnosis. I believe that He makes all things for our good (Romans 8:28.) He can use our struggles to inspire others. He can use our heartache to build a better us. He can use the worst the world has to offer to accomplish so many great things.
I put my friend in contact with several moms whose children have faced the same diagnosis. The overwhelming theme of their stories…it’s a hard road, but a rewarding one too. That’s where I see God. Not as the script-writer who dictates the tragedies that plague our lives, but by drawing us closer to Him when they strike.
Even in the worst of situations, God is there. But the never-ending question still stands: Why doesn’t He take our struggles away when He is capable? I don’t know. No one does. But I think it’s because we don’t live in a perfect world. That world has not yet come.
“Some believe that everything happens according to the will of God. These often speak of God’s “sovereignty” – that is, God’s authority, power, and dominion, as if believing that everything that happens according to God’s will is an essential part of believing that God is sovereign. But the over-arching biblical story doesn’t seem to be that God’s will is always done.” –Adam Hamilton, Making Sense of the Bible
** I do not have a theology degree. I just consider myself a life-long student of the Bible. To read how my faith story began, click here.
***To buy The Will of God, click the Amazon banner below. Disclosure: If you buy the book, I will collect a small profit from Amazon. [amazon template=banner easy&asin=http://www.amazon.com/The-Will-God-Leslie-Weatherhead/dp/0687074827]
