Monday, June 30, 2025
Top 10 Badass Goku Moments
Power up and join us as we explore the most epic moments that solidified Goku's status as a true warrior! From his first Super Saiyan transformation to his mastery of Ultra Instinct, we'll relive the times when Goku pushed beyond his limits and left us in awe. Our countdown includes Goku's iconic speech to Frieza, his selfless sacrifice against Cell, and his jaw-dropping battles against formidable foes like Beeru
Theodicy, Lamentations, and God's Glory
Yesterday, I spoke at my church and today, I am turning it into a blog post with the video at the end. The text here will vary in that it will have more details that I did not have time to speak. We will be looking at something I have written about in the past. Today we are going to be looking at theodicy from the Biblical lens of what Lamentations are and what they are not. Theodicy is a branch of theology attempting to make sense of our lived reality of suffering and how God relates to it. The questions raised in theodicy are not new or inappropriate or irrelevant. I can prove that because God spends so much time on it in scripture from many perspectives. The whole book of Habbakuk is a Theodicy - a conversation with God about suffering - real human suffering. I am going to resist the urge to dive into that because that is not what I am here to write about now. The questions that arise boil down to one: “Why Me, Lord?” The question is sometimes stated in this way “If God is so good and loves me, why am I suffering?” I am going for the underlying problem today. It isn’t just that people suffer and people are suffering injustice. It all hits differently when you are watching other people go through things versus when it is yourself. The issue becomes way more personal and a desire for an answer can be consuming. It is an existential question. The kind of question that could keep one awake at night.
Before we dive in, take a moment to consider how much God loves us. He not only gives us answers in scripture but from a couple of different perspectives. As I study this, I see two approaches - an intellectual one and an emotional one. There may be others but we are going to focus on these two in general and then dive into one. There is not a one-size fits all solution to the puzzle because it depends on the sufferer and the suffering for what comforts most. The intellectual approach is more philosophical and clean. I mean no pesky feelings to get in the way and for me, way easy to see God’s point of view as God reveals it. In the past when I have preached on this, I had only studied the intellectual side. I mean that is the easy one and for me personally I find it comforting 95% of the time. The reminder of God’s sovereign omnipotent power is comforting because of the faith that no matter what happens or what we see, we can trust that God not only has it all under control, but that he is working it out for us. For example, Roman 8:28-29 says:
Romans 8:28-29
New International VersioN
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Now, I know I do not have all day, so we are not going to mine that for more than to say God is in control of everything and uses all things for our good. Full stop. This passage summarizes what God is doing in our lives and why he is doing it. The “how” God does it is not going to look the same for any two believers but without a single outlier includes suffering. God loves us too much to leave us as we are. God’s purpose is to make us like Christ. All of us are different and not Christ-like. That is why we must change. Unfortunately change is sometimes painful and not fun. We have to do and experience things that we would have not chosen to live through but coming out the other side means we will be more Christ-like. Ultimately that is worth it - whatever we have to go through - if glorifying God is the result. Much more could be said, but now we need to get to the core of today.
Up until now in my life, I would kind of stop here. Go deeper into what the scriptures are saying about why God is justified to allow suffering. I state it that way because in scripture and in my lived experiences I have seen God change lives so that suffering was either done away with or like what we like to call a “happy ending”. But as I have gotten older and experienced more life, the conclusion that pain is inevitable because of sin and the world’s fallenness (yes even natural disasters) does not always work out the way we want. What do you do when you pray and God says “No”? What happens when you are in the middle of your nightmare scenario and you have no way out or forward? Let’s be honest, you wanna slug whoever it is that quotes Romans 8 back to you. What’s different? It hits so close to home that your emotional state is flipped upside down and sideways. Added to that, God does not owe us an explanation for how he does anything. No where in the Book of Job does Job get an explanation for why his life blew up in his face. Instead what he got was a deeper and meaningful relationship with God. So what we are going to focus on right now is what you and I are supposed to do in those kinds of situations. I use the term “supposed to” because when you got nothing and no where to go what do you do?
This takes us to the point of Lamentations. The Book of Lamentations is a collection of writings attributed to the prophet Jeremiah detailing his processing of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. You get real raw emotion- fear, anger, despair - all turning into hope basesd in relationship and faith in God. A lamentation is described as a poem or song that expresses sorrow and pain as a cry to God. I do not just want to focus on the Book of Lamentations today but instead discuss how laments are a God-given tool for processing pain and trauma. There are several examples of laments in the Bible that are not in the Book of Lamentations. For example several Psalms and some of the Book of Job are great examples of Lamentations. Let’s circle back to how laments help deal with suffering. Godly laments have several features that distinguish them from what psalms are in general. All laments could be considered psalms but not all psalms are not laments. In the interest of time, I will not cover all the different types of psalms but for today let’s look at what makes a psalm a lament.
Laments have the following characteristics:
* Core Emotion: Sorrow, grief, distress, pain, confusion, sometimes anger or accusation.
* Typical Structure:
* Address to God: A direct cry to Yahweh (e.g., "O Lord," "My God").
* Complaint: Articulation of the problem – suffering, injustice, illness, enemies, God's apparent absence, or delay in intervention. This can be very raw and questioning.
* Petition/Plea for Help: A specific request for God to act and deliver.
* Expression of Trust/Confidence: A shift, often at the end, from despair to a reaffirmation of faith in God's character, power, or covenant faithfulness.
* Vow of Praise: A promise to offer thanksgiving or praise once deliverance is granted.
* Purpose: To process suffering and injustice in a faithful manner, bringing raw emotion directly to God, and ultimately moving towards renewed trust. They are a means of honest dialogue with God in the midst of adversity.
* Examples: Psalm 13, Psalm 22, Psalm 88, Psalm 74.
Notice how the point of a Biblical lament is to reach out and converse with God without pretense or holding anything out. If the lamenter is angry with God, it comes through in the text. If the lamenter is afraid he or she comes forthrightly and boldly to God. We often feel like hiding our emotions and pain from others due to fear of rejection or hurting others. But God can take it. God wants us to come to him. We can go to him carrying our brokenness to him and he will not reject or condemn us. God wants all the smoke. God’s not scared. God’s not shocked. You think your life is unfair? Tell him about it. Let him help you. Do you feel abandoned and rejected? Join the club with David, Job, Habakkuk, Paul, Jeremiah, and so many others. God can take our pains and turn it into something way more. That is what Romans chapter 8 is about. The whole Bible is about how God did that. No where in all the scripture does it say that God struck someone down dead after a lament. We do see comfort. We do see re-alignment. We do see re-direction. God can do the same for you and I today, and oh boy I need Him. We don’t have to pretend everything is okay. We don’t needd to worry that our ugly cry will make God run away from us.
So is there an emotional theodicy for us? Yes. It’s not about avoiding, fighting,ignoring, or fixing the situations or circumstances. The bigger the mess it is the less we can do to fix it under our own power. Fortunately, it is not just us. Feel what you feel and then take it to the Lord. He does care. So when we see life blow up and cause us more suffering than we ever thought possible, God wants us to turn to Him. Trust Him. We can lean on God because he can take weight and we have no other or better option because we need no other.
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