What is God doing?
He had a view of God passed down to him through his family and his experience with God. His understanding of God went something like this: obey God and he will bless you. Disobey God and he will crush you.
By the looks of things, he had been really, really good. A quiver full of kids and more warehousing space than should be allowed, this man had a roaring business. He had great friends and a great home. He treated his employees well, almost like family. His kids were careful to live a godly lifestyle and just in case they didn’t, he would offer a prayer of protection and seek forgiveness for them just in case they partied a bit too hard. He loved his life, his family, his company, and his God.
On this day, he went set out as if it were any other day. Prayer and praise, then off to the job of managing the family business. He was a little later into the office today than usual. He had a meeting on the other side of town. Yet, as he neared the campus, he was excited because business was doing great.
As he rounded the corner, however, a pile of twisted metal and steel lay where one of his warehouses had stood. He couldn’t get into the offices because of the destruction that he saw. Getting out of his car, one foreman arrived with bad news. There was a great storm that came up earlier that morning and a tornado ripped through the company complex. All his kids, who were part of the family business, were killed. Not only that, but the storm destroyed the entire business complex. Everything was gone.
Tears rolled down the man’s face as he sought to process all that happened. He could not explain it. He could not understand it. All he could do was stand where his empire had been and weep. His wife showed up. They simply held each other. Friends who heard about the destruction raced to his side. Sometimes in time of need, you don’t need people to say anything, but you need people to just be there. That was the actions of his friends. They remained with him for days. They mourned the loss with him.
He mentally walked through the last few weeks of his life. Had he done something that would have made God angry? Had he not done something God had told him to do? He couldn’t think of anything major. Maybe there was something seemingly insignificant he had overlooked. Though he knew he was not perfect, he could not think of anything that would lead God to bring the destruction and ruin to his life that had been brought upon him. He was at a loss to understand these events.
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