Climbing Into My Watchtower

In 1985 my friend and mentor Dwight Westover was killed in a plane crash. He and Rick Peterson were flying to Bakersfield when their plane went down in high winds. Dwight and Rick were both family men, and ministers who were doing great things for God.

When I got word of their death I was shaken. How could God let this happen? Why didn’t God protect them? I could find no answers.

At Dwight’s memorial service, Dr. Everett Stenhouse, our Southern California Assemblies of God leader, got up to speak. Surely he had the reason. If anybody could, Dr. Stenhouse could help make sense of this tragedy.

He couldn’t, and he didn’t. Instead, he plainly said, “I don’t know.” Then he read Habakkuk 2:1,

I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the LORD says and how he will answer my complaint.

He couldn’t explain it, and he wasn’t presumptuous enough to try. My already favorable opinion of Dr. Stenhouse skyrocketed that day.

There are things that happen that we can’t explain. Why doesn’t God heal everybody? Why do some of my prayers seemingly go unanswered? Why? Why? Why?

I don’t know, and I am not going to be pompous and say that I know exactly why or what God is doing. He is God, and I must trust Him, and I do. So when things happen that I can’t understand or figure out, like Habakkuk I climb into my watchtower and wait to see how God will answer. Sometimes we may wait years to see the answer why, sometimes we will have to wait for heaven to get the answers we seek.

My questions don’t shake my faith, they merely reinforce that I am not God. I may not know everything, but I love and trust the One who does.

Today’s Readings:  Habakkuk  1-3; John  8

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