The date was September 11, 2001. Brian Birdwell was working at the Pentagon when he stepped out of his office to use the restroom. As he was walking back, a plane controlled by terrorists struck his office, just 20 yards away. When the plane exploded, he was instantly engulfed in flames.
“Jesus, I’m coming to see ya,” he screamed into the inferno. The hot jet fuel seared his flesh, yet somehow he was still alive. Friends rescued him, but 60 percent of his body was covered in severe burns. He was in such critical condition that his family rushed to the hospital to say goodbye. When they arrived, Brian was barely recognizable.
Why would a loving God permit Brian to be burned in this way—and allow thousands of others to suffer horrific deaths? These difficult questions challenge our understanding of God’s providence, which the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines as “God’s faithful and effective care and guidance of everything which He has made toward the end which He has chosen.”[1]
Is God to Blame?
How can an omnipotent God providentially oversee the unspeakable tragedies that unfold every day around us? Some, like John Calvin, emphasize God’s sovereignty, asserting that every event is divinely ordained. They reference Ephesians 1:11, “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will” (NIV).[2]
John Piper, a prominent evangelical author, poses the question “Has God predetermined every tiny detail in the universe, such as dust particles in the air and all of our besetting sins?” His answer is simply “Yes.”[3]
When a young man died in a car accident, a pastor delivered the news to his sister by assuring her, “It was your brother’s time to die, and God knows best.” Rather than helping her trust God, this explanation led her to question God’s love. Did God cause the other car to collide with her brother’s car, taking his life? For many years she struggled to trust the God she had been told chose to bring this suffering upon her family.
If everything that happens is God’s will—including our sins—then tragedy is God’s design. God is ultimately responsible for evil itself! This is a dangerous theology.
The Mystery of God’s Will
The Bible teaches that God’s providence and will are a mystery.[4] We need to hold two things in tension—God’s sovereignty and our free choice. God’s will can be described in three ways: His predetermined will (that He put an end to sin and suffering forever), His preferred will (that all should be saved), and His permissive will (that He will allow free-willed beings to choose good or evil). In other words, as John Peckham has pointed out, God’s power has limitations imposed by His own character. Simply put, God will not violate the principles of love to impose what is best for us upon us against our will.
God will ultimately accomplish His purposes, but not necessarily His desires. God longs to rescue His people, but He will not force anyone to follow Him. Psalm 81 describes those who reject Him despite His pleas (verses 11-14).
What about those who do choose to follow him? Will “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28, KJV)? Is everything that happens to faithful followers of Jesus somehow “good”?
God’s providence does not cause evil but transforms it.
Unfortunately, this text has often been misunderstood. The New International Version makes the intent clearer: “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (verse 28). Not all things that happen to God’s followers are good, but He weaves all things—even bad things that weren’t His will—together to bring about good for those who surrender their brokenness to Him.
God Is Present and Purposeful
Recently my daughter was involved in a minor car accident. I anticipated that this day would arrive. No, I didn’t have foreknowledge of it (as God did), but I knew that inexperience would inevitably lead to mistakes. With that understanding, I had purchased collision insurance for her car. Driving with a frosty windshield and the sun in her eyes, she grazed a parked car—clearly her fault. When she called me on the phone, crying, I rushed to her side immediately.
I wish she hadn’t had that accident. There will be consequences—my insurance premiums will go up, and the value of her car will go down. But my concern, as a father, was not with those things. It was to be with my daughter, to comfort, hold, and reassure her. It’s my role to bring good out of bad. I will utilize the insurance that I already put into place to restore that which was lost. But more important, I will continue to walk alongside her, comforting her and helping her learn and grow through this.
This experience illustrates how God can “foreknow” without determining our choices or being responsible for the evil itself. He allows tragedy, but He is not absent when it occurs. He is right there beside us, comforting us and bringing good out of evil. Ultimately He is implementing a plan to end all suffering and restore us from our brokenness. As Paul states, God will bring about that “which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ” (Eph. 1:9, 10, NIV). God’s purposes will always ultimately be fulfilled.
Is God Too Busy?
I once sat on a plane next to a wealthy man who owned several hotels. When I told him I was a pastor, he shared a gut-wrenching story about how his friend’s daughter had been walking on a mountain trail when four men kidnapped and murdered her. His friend’s distraught wife shouted at him, “Where was God when this happened?”
“What did you say?” I asked, still reeling from the horror of the story.
“I told her that God has a lot to do and that He can’t stop every tragedy from happening.”
I gulped at the implications of this man’s theology—that God is too busy or preoccupied to care about stopping horrific events. The notion that God is either powerless or indifferent is just as dangerous as asserting that He controls everything.
After some discussion, I suggested a different explanation to my questioning seatmate, using an illustration.
“When I was in high school, I was a pretty good chess player. Once, the school organized an exhibition match with a famous Russian grandmaster. The best students were to play him, all at the same time. There were 20 of us. The grandmaster would move from board to board, making his moves at lightning speed. I did pretty well—I was one of the last five still playing.
“But our top junior player performed even better. We were convinced he was winning his game. The Russian grandmaster appeared troubled as he sat across from our player, staring at the board with intense focus. Finally he moved a piece, and we gasped. It was a dumb move! Our top player was sweating. He searched for any possible reason not to take the piece, but it was evident that it was simply a mistake on the grandmaster’s part.
“With trembling hands our player took the pawn. From there, victory looked assured. The game proceeded rapidly, with our player clearly in control—until eight moves later. At that point the grandmaster made an unexpected move, and we realized that the game had turned—and the grandmaster won. The ‘blunder’ had led to a victory because the grandmaster could see many moves ahead, all the way to the endgame.”
I paused to let my illustration sink in. “God has allowed free choice. It looks like a dumb move—a losing move. But God sees the endgame. He knows that allowing suffering and tragedy is the way to ultimately rid the universe of both sin and pain. His love allows the freedom to choose because this is the only way to win the war against evil.”
The man nodded his head slowly. “God allows free choice and suffering so that He can ultimately conquer evil. I get that. But then are we just a chess game?”
“No,” I countered. “God did not simply leave us in our mess. Jesus stepped into it. He experienced abuse. He was murdered. What happened to your friend’s daughter is like what happened to Jesus. God does not always prevent suffering, but He does step into the middle of it! Please tell your friends that God cares and that He knows what she is experiencing, because the Father experienced it happening to His own Son.”
God’s Purpose in Suffering
Providence is not saying that everything that happens is God’s will. Providence accepts that God is always at work to bring good out of evil.
Remember our opening story? Brian Birdwell didn’t die of his burns on September 11. He lived, although it took four years and 39 reconstructive surgeries to gain a semblance of his life back. In his book, Refined by Fire, Brian describes what happened to him in these terms:
“For weeks, no one knew if I would live or die. But God knew. He had a plan for my life. And no terrorist would be able to work against the purposes of God. My survival didn’t happen by luck or mere chance. It happened because a sovereign God had a specific plan for my life.”5
Brian’s survival was both painful and miraculous. It would be tempting to say that he was indestructible that day because, in God’s providence, his time had not yet come—that it was predetermined that he would survive. But why did Brian survive while the 64 people on the plane and 125 of his colleagues at the Pentagon did not? What about the thousands of others who died in the twin towers? Why did a sovereign God allow their deaths?
God’s providence operates within limits. Although God is all-loving and all-powerful, He does not prevent all evil. When a group of terrorists decided to take over planes and ram them into buildings as explosive devices, God did not intervene to stop it. If He had, He would have removed their freedom to choose evil over good.
While God’s respect for human choice may allow evil, He does not remain stranded on the sidelines, wringing His hands at the destruction we bring upon ourselves. Instead, God is present in every terrible ordeal. Like a father rushing to his child’s side after an accident, God is holding our hand as we fight our way through tragedy and heartache, bringing healing.
As Brian himself acknowledges, “God doesn’t necessarily keep us from going through our own personal fire. He won’t magically remove the hurt and the consequences of decisions made. But He promises to walk through those experiences with us. While He may not take away the pain, He gives us the strength, comfort, peace and endurance to walk through, to get to the other side, and to be closer to God through the process.”6
God’s Providence in Suffering
I don’t know what challenges you are facing this week. I don’t know exactly how God is working in your life. Certainly some elements of God’s will and our suffering are a mystery. But remember: “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. (Ps. 23:4, NLT).7 God is present in our sufferings, working to bring good out of even the most excruciating pain. After all, that’s what happened at the cross. One “dumb,” inexplicable move—allowing Jesus to be crucified—brought salvation to the universe. Thus, the event that broke the heart of God also has the potential to break willing hearts by teaching us that God is love.
God cares, even amid your suffering. And yes, God can bring good, even out of pain. God’s providence does not cause evil, but transforms it. May you find strength in looking to Him today.
1 Timothy George. “Providence” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003).
2 Texts credited to NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
3 John Piper, “Has God Predetermined Every Tiny Detail in the Universe, Including Sin?” https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/has-god-predetermined-every-tiny-detail-in-the-universe-including-sin.
4 Ephesians 1:9.
5 Brian and Mel Birdwell, Refined by Fire: A Family’s Triumph of Love and Faith (Carol Stream, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 2011), p. xiii.
6 Ibid.
7 Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
