When God Doesn't Fix It: Lessons You Never Wanted to Learn, Truths You Can't Live Without

by Laura Story

Worship is surrendering everything for God, valuing God so much that we’re willing to let everything else go.

worshipping the Giver was greater than worshipping the gift he’d been given.

As Martin and I live out God’s plan for our lives, we’ve had to let go of many of our dreams. But we believe that God’s plan is better, that his timing is perfect, and with that trust and confidence, we want to sacrifice our dreams when he asks—even the most painful ones.

We don’t gain God’s blessings by hanging on. We gain them by letting go.

No matter what God asks, I pray that my hands are open and my grip is loose. Take what you will. And what you bless me with, I will use to bless others.

MYTH: I GAIN BY HOLDING ON. TRUTH: I GAIN BY LETTING GO.

In the midst of broken circumstances, we ask why.

For many, the only thing they hear when they ask God why is silence. They feel alone and abandoned. Sometimes they grow angry and bitter at what seems to be his lack of response.

One of my favorite question-and-answer sessions is found in the Gospel of John.

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:1–2 ESV)

in those days, blindness was considered punishment for a sin that the blind person or his parents had committed.

But there was also another form of blindness that was much more prevalent—spiritual blindness.

it’s ironic that while Jesus is running from a group of spiritually blind men, he takes interest in a

physically blind man. When the disciples notice Jesus regarding the blind man, they take the opportunity to ask Jesus a why question.

“Why was this man bor...

Their curiosity wasn’t about the man’s physical state or why...

They wanted to know where to place the blame. Was it this man or his parents who sinned? Who was at fault...

What would you have done if you were the blind man and you heard the disciples ask that question about you?

Perhaps you know exactly what you would do in the blind man’s situation because you’re in it now.

You have a debilitating medical condition, a child with a disability, a breakup, or a home without children, and you’ve been asking why.

For years, you’ve tried to assign blame or place fault on someone or something else while secretly fearing that maybe your sin caused your brokenness. In those difficult moments, public questions leave you with a deeper sense of shame, humiliation, and anger.

someone will come up and say, “Before you leave, we’d love to pray for you and your husband.”

But I know what’s coming.

They encircle us and start praying, and then someone says, “Lord, if there is any unconfessed sin in Martin’s life that might have caused this to happen . . .”

Martin is then forced to wrack his injured brain for sins he might have committed and hadn’t confessed. It seems so c...

It’s also poor t...

I’ve read this passage in John 9...

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (vv. 3–5)

Jesus was clear. Neither the man’s nor his parents’ sin caused the blindness.

Not only was this theologically groundbreaking, but it was also p...

Jesus wanted the disciples, the blind man, and the religious leaders listening to his conversation to know that it wasn’t one person’s specific sin that caused this man’s hopeless situation.

Jesus was not saying the man was born blind so God’s glory could be displayed in him. In the original language the phrase,

“so that the works of God . . .” precedes the next verse. There are eleven uses of this kind of phrase in the Gospel of John, and at least four of them precede the main sentence rather than follow it.

Scholars believe this sentence should follow that pattern, so i...

“ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus. ‘But so that the work of God might be displayed in his life, we must do the work of h...

God had not made the man blind in order to show his glory; rather, God has sent Jesus to do works of healing in order to show his glory. The theological nuance of the two translations cannot be more different.”

Jesus was clear that neither this man’s nor his parents’ sin caused his blindness.

But neither did God ...

Sickness and disease are consequences of the fall—a result of humanity’s sin. There weren’t unsanitary conditions in the garden. It was only after Adam and Eve sinned and were forced

out of the garden that the earth began to decay and sickness and disease entered the world.

Romans 5:12 tells us, “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to...

When man sinned, everythi...

But this is why Jesus came back and

will come back again—for the redemption of all things. There will be no more cancer, no more blindness, no more pain, tears, or unemployment. Addictions will be gone, depression won’t last, breakups won’t happen, and children will all be born healthy.

God sent Jesus not only to redeem people but to r...

So just as Jesus came to heal our broken relationship with God, he also came to heal the consequences o...

Life was hopeless and dark for those who couldn’t physically see.

Life was even more hopeless and dark for those who couldn’t see God.

His primary role was to heal our broken relationship with God—to bring us out of spiritual darkness.

But as we saw earlier, the spiritually blind