by David Barshinger
"I had faith until I got to Iraq.... I haven't gotten it back since. Once you get there, you wonder how God could allow anyone to go through that."1
Those are the words of an Army specialist after serving two terms in Iraq, a man who weighs honestly his observations of war and faith. How do you reconcile mass bloodshed with a loving God? God seems absent at the very time when His intervention is most needed.
We've all heard this question in one shape or another, and if we're honest with ourselves, most of us have asked the question too. Like the Army specialist, the mass evil we see in our world — such as Hitler's genocidal program, the Darfur crisis, and heartless terrorism aimed at innocent civilians — disturbs us to the core. We cry out, "Where's God? I see no signs of Him anywhere."
If you've asked the question, you're in good company. King David, the man after God's own heart, posed the question too:
Why, O LORD, do you stand afar off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Ps 10:1)
Questioning God's presence isn't wrong. It's human.
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