Why the trial?

When you’re suffering some trial, sometimes a well-meaning soul will ask you, “What is God teaching you through this?”

I strongly dislike that formulation.

Maybe God will teach you something. But when God “teaches” us, He reshapes us. It isn’t merely the kind of knowledge you can write down in a notebook.

Paul doesn’t use the imagery of students much. At the end of his life he wrote, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Elsewhere he urges us to put on the armor of God. For Paul, a battlefield is a better metaphor for our lives than a classroom.

James says the devil prowls about like a lion looking for someone to devour. Again, this is a matter of danger and preparation.

I think that God’s omnipotence plays out against creaturely free will like this: We get a vote in what happens, and do does your neighbor, and so does the devil. And, as part of the constitution of the world that allows for our free will, so does chance – a looseness in the construction of things to let us put our oar in.

God’s omnipotence sometimes manifests as miracles, but I think oftener it is a matter of our not being able to outmaneuver God. He wins whatever we choose. If I capture a pawn with a bishop, or move a knight to threaten a rook, the grandmaster will still win the game in the end.

The victory is even more certain than that, since the Almighty will resurrect and judge too – that pawn isn’t lost forever. And every second is remembered.

In the meantime, life has battles. And losses. A battle may require a soldier to attack, defend his position as long as he can, move – no one rule describes it all. So with us. If I read correctly, God values obedience and perseverance, no matter what the short-term outcome.

Though in the moment it certainly doesn’t feel like it, ultimately, through God even the losses will turn victorious. It can require omnipotence.