During lunch today I took a break from watching/listening to a live feed from WAFF in Huntsville, Alabama, to read another chapter of Philip Yancey’s book Prayer. I was watching the Huntsville news because of the bus accident that I heard about via Mike the Eye Guy’s post this morning. A school bus full of high school students drove off of an overpass this morining near downtown Huntsville. It was roughly a 25 to 30 foot drop, and the front of the bus hit the ground first. It has been confirmed so far that at least 3 have died due to the accident, and many of the other students on the bus were taken to area hospitals with varying degress of injuries.

I always have trouble with stories like this one. I struggle to understand why horrible things like this have to happen. This is on a smaller scale than an Oklahoma City or a World Trade Center, but it’s the same story - innocent people dying for what seems like no good reason. One of the things that I noticed while tuned in to the coverage is that, as the reporters scattered throughout Huntsville interviewed folks who had family or friends involved in the accident, many of those people mentioned the prayers that they and others were praying for all involved, particularly the injured and their famlies.

Yancey’s chapter titled “Why Pray?” began with this paragraph:

Does God really care about the details of our lives, such as getting a house sold or finding a lost cat? And if the answer is yes, then what about a hurricance that flattens a city or a tsunami that washes away a quarter million people? Why does God seem so capricious in deciding if and when to intervene on this chaotic planet?

Later, Yancey also quotes a philosphy professor who says the following:

If God can influence the course of events, then a God who is willing to cure colds and provide parking spaces but is not willing to prevent Auschwitz and Hiroshima is morally repugnant. Since Hiroshima and Auschwitz did occur, one must infer that God cannot (or has a policy never to) influence the course of worldly events.

With the events in Huntsville on my mind, I couldn’t help but wonder what the folks over there are thinking regarding God’s answers thus far today. I suspect many of these parents, like me, say at least a short prayer every morning that God will watch over their children and keep them safe throughout the day. Some who prayed that prayer rejoice at this very hour because it appears to have been answered. They are now at their child’s side, even though the child may be recovering from some injuries. Others who prayed the same prayer are now grieving the loss of that child and questioning why God chose not to intervene on their behalf and save their child as well.

I struggle to grasp why God appears to answer and act on behalf of some, and not others. I wonder why, when I pray trivial prayers about small issues in my own life, it seems He answers them, yet when I and others pray for something far more important to us - the health of a loved one, for example - the prayer goes unanswered and death takes that loved one away.

When I began my current job, we were still living in Alabama and I was forced to commute to Little Rock for the first five weeks, leaving each week on Sunday afternoon and returning Friday evening. We were still trying to sell our house so that we could move back home. I prayed for things such as a buyer for our house, safe travel, and that our van would hold up and I wouldn’t end up stuck in the middle of nowhere during my trips back and forth (and there’s a lot of “nowhere” in North Mississippi on 72 and Eastern Arkansas along I-40.) Evidently, the prayers were all answered.

Several months later, my entire family prayed for my aunt who was battling cancer. She’d been doing so for years. She dealt with being sick and returning to health multiple times. This time, though, there was no answer to the appeal that she regain her health again, and she died earlier this year.

Why does God answer my prayer to avoid the inconvenience of car trouble and yet seemingly ignore the request from hundreds of people that my aunt be restored to good health, eventually allowing her to die?

Some will say that God knows what He’s doing. His ways are not our ways. We cannot fully comprehend Him nor His actions. Job questioned Him and God said, “Hey, where were you when I created the world??” I understand that I won’t understand, at least not eveything. I can accept that God knows more than me. And I assume He has a reason for the things He does or does not do.

Nevertheless, it seems that such explanations are much easier to accept when the unanswered prayer is someone else’s.

Yancey’s answer to the question “why pray?” ultimately is: because of Jesus’ example. He goes beyond simply “because Jesus did”, and I’ll try to post more about the rest of the chapter later.