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There are many question words in any language. In English, most of the question words begin with WH: “What,” “When,” “Where,” Who,” and “How.” Much knowledge is gained by asking these questions. However, the question that troubles us the most is the one that I did not mention: “WHY.” This is the one we ask each other more often than any of the other questions. We want to know the reason behind every event under the sun and rhyme for everything that happens. Why did you forget our anniversary? Why were you not present at our junior’s baseball game? Why did you go there? Why did you do this, and why did you not do that?

But all these WHY questions pale when compared to the “WHY” question that we are sometimes forced to ask God.

Imagine, for example, you have three sons. Of course, you love them all. But the youngest is the most cherished one. It is the hardest to let him go. He leaves home after high school for college. He is just about done with college – one more year to go. He calls you to tell you that he will be coming home for Thanksgiving. You are eagerly waiting for the time when he will be home. Just a week or so before he comes home, you get a phone call from his roommate. Your son had a motorcycle accident . . . . He was killed. What kind of parents would you be if you did not raise your fist before God and ask “WHY? Why did You let this happen?”

The age-old question that man has raised is this: why would an all powerful and loving God allow such things? An atheist, of course, would have a ready answer: “There is no God. If there was a God, certainly He would not allow such things.” In anything and everything, an atheist finds proof for denying the existence of God because “

Most churches have invested big money in facilities that are attractive and functional.  While a church building is a great tool, we have to keep in mind that God’s mission for the world is much bigger than being nice people inside a beautiful facility.

God has a mission for the world.  It includes the things we do at the church building, but it is bigger because he is Lord of all creation.  “All things were created by him and for him.  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  And he is the head of the body, the church” (Col. 1:16-18). 

The church exists to serve the mission of God, and he draws us out of the church building into the world he loves.  Church buildings, like money, are a wonderful servant but a terrible master.  This series calls us to lift our eyes from the concerns of day-to-day church life to reflect on God’s grand scheme for all of creation.