Things They Don’t Teach You in Bible College
“They don’t teach you in Bible college what to say to the family who’s son was shot in the head with a stray bullet.” These are the words from an Assembly of God pastor as reported in the Norman Transcript, my hometown paper. He couldn’t think what to say at the funeral of this five-year-old boy that was suddenly and tragically killed in a freak accident.
I understand his words well. I can remember the first time I was called to a family’s home right after their son committed suicide. I remember the phone call I got to care for another father whose son was murdered in a store robbery. I remember feeling a good deal of inadequacy. I had no words for the family at their home, and I had no words for the funeral. Yet I was required to say something; I was required to fill in the blanks, to try to make sense of the senseless.
There is much in our world that simply makes no sense. How do we explain an attack like the one on 9/11? How do we make sense of the tragic deaths of those who lost their lives when a bridge collapses in front of them? How do we make sense of cancer or violence or war?
Ministers are supposed to have these things figured out. They are supposed to explain it to the rest of us who haven’t had the benefit of a theological education. This assumes there is a theological explanation for everything. It assumes that we as humankind are smart enough to figure out a Theo-meaning. That is, it assumes we are smart enough to figure out a God-meaning for everything. If, however, we could figure out God’s meaning for everything, we would know everything God thought. We would become like God.
Theologians and Bible college graduates are no different from anyone else. They are human beings a long way from fully understanding God or the meaning of creation and all its events. I know this for a fact because I am a graduate of a theological school. Mostly, what I have are theological interpretations and guesses. My poverty in explaining the sad events of the world, however, is paired with my wealth in faith. I have faith in a God that is larger than I can understand. Many things I must trust into the hands of God because they overwhelm my ability to comprehend. I don’t feel the need to explain everything anymore. Some things just are. Mostly, God is.
Comments
Share your thoughts...
