WHEN NOTHING MAKES SENSE…YET I WILL
(8-minute read)
SENSE-MAKING is about how we give meaning to what’s happening to and around us. For believers, it often sounds like this: if we practice strong faith in God, we should see prayers answered quickly or it won’t make sense. If we are faithful in serving God, the best outcomes should happen to us or else our lives are a weak testimony of His goodness. If we live a quiet and godly life, we should not expect to be struck by unexplained illnesses. If we do not offend anyone, we should enjoy healthy relationships.
Many Christians subscribe to the fallacy that their lives should somehow be protected and free from diseases, dysfunctions, difficulties and dilemmas. Their sense-making follows a line of reasoning rooted more in performance and reward than in their relationship with God. It overlooks the fact that, even as children of the living God, we share the same human experience as everyone around us.
So what is the right response when nothing makes sense to us anymore? The Bible shows us three counter-intuitive life-changing things we can do:
1. PRAISE AND REJOICE IN GOD
We are not talking about being so optimistic that we ignore negative emotions; that would be toxic positivity that can be harmful. Praise and rejoicing are relational languages in our walk with God. We use these languages especially when times are hard.
Habakkuk left us with a powerful prayer that wasn't a picture of anything worth celebrating. “Though the fig-tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the sheepfold and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour.” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
We can paraphrase this prayer with our current circumstances:
Though my health has yet to experience significant improvement…
Though my life right now is not what I was prepared for…
Though I am facing headwinds in the project…
Though the realities are hard for job-seekers my age…
When the disciples, Paul and Silas, were attacked by an angry mob, and subsequently thrown into jail and severely flogged, they raised their voices in praise rather than in pain (Acts 16:22-25). There was nothing natural about their response because the fresh wounds on their bodies should produce rage, moans and groans.
Then, as recorded, About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” What did they have to praise God for? Being falsely accused and chained like animals? Yet, nothing could muffle their praise to God.
Job also showed us that we can still praise God even after facing unspeakable personal tragedy and financial loss all in a single day. His counter-narrative to tragedy was this, ‘naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised’ (Job 1:21). Job showed us that we don’t worship a God who makes sense to us; we worship a God who loves us, and goes through deep pain with us. Yet, unlike us, He is not helpless.
Let’s be clear: problems don’t exist in isolation. It doesn’t help to oversimplify our thinking, ignore market forces at play, over-estimate our capabilities and competence, or downplay our part in relational problems. But we can always trust God to tackle any multi-layered wicked problems even in the absence of ready evidence.
2. HONOUR GOD
Knowing that God possesses all the power and means to help us, let’s be mindful of how we can respond even in emotionally charged and mentally perplexing situations.
In Daniel 1:8, Daniel found himself in a tight ethical dilemma. Would he honour God and decline the offer of food from the royal menu (food that may not be Kosher or were offered to idols before being served), or would he put his life and career at risk by saying no. In the end, he “resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this way.” But Daniel’s action would put the chief official’s life at risk if he ended up looking worse than the others who were served the royal menu. So Daniel told the official to pilot his new diet for ten days and then decide if he could continue. (Daniel 1:12-14). His action not only honoured God, but also took into account the official’s risk of losing his life as a result of allowing him an alternative diet.
Honouring God was a consistent expression in Daniel’s life and was more important to him than his position in the palace and even his life. Because of this, his troubles also didn’t end there: other royal officials conspired to take him down through the one thing that he would not compromise on – his commitment to honour God!
In Daniel 6:7, we see that they tried to trap Daniel in what he could not stop doing – praying to the Almighty God. They “issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to the new king Darius, shall be thrown into the lions’ den.”
In response, “when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened towards Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.” (Daniel 6:10).
Then there was the apostle Paul and his indefatigable spirit. He often wrote compelling and stirring messages from dark and damp prisons rather than prominent public pulpits. During another prison stint, he wrote, “I can hardly wait to continue on my course. I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least. On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die. They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a platform! Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his prize. Life versus even more life! I can’t lose.” (Philippians 1:19 – 26 MSG).
3. TRUST GOD
It is ludicrous to boast about trusting someone if we have never felt safe enough to face conflict or address differences in the relationship. Trust is a relational currency that we use when we navigate the unknown together. How much trust in God do we have to readily step out of known situations, and into new experiences and challenges?
Two women in the Bible showed us what trust in God looks like when facing great uncertainties – Mary and Ruth (related by marriage as you will see later).
When Mary was told that she would conceive, she wasn’t even married. So the idea of a premarital conception was a clear violation of social norms that brought severe consequences.
Really? Couldn’t the baby wait till after the wedding?
If timing was critical, couldn’t the angel have picked a married cousin?
Why throw the community into uproar over a baby?
Instead, Mary’s response went loke this, “How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’ The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail. ‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ Then the angel left her.” (Luke 1:34-38)
Since then, Mary’s reply has became the gold standard for responding to God when He seems to make no sense!
Next, we go back in the biblical timeline to see the newly widowed Ruth badgering her mother-in-law, Naomi, to let her follow her for life; though it did not seem to make sense to the elderly widow.
“Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” (Ruth 1:16-17).
We now know that Ruth’s commitment and love for Naomi positioned her in the lineage of Jesus’ ancestry through her subsequent marriage to Boaz.
Real trust in God always involves taking risks, and letting go of our attachment to what worked before. Following their individual response, Mary and Ruth did not find any semblance of settledness, instead each was thrown into a heady whirlwind of events that revealed God’s glorious narrative of salvation for mankind.
Do you have more conversations resisting God with excuses than you spend time telling Him, “And I know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28paraphrased).
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 23 August 2025.
