Don't Tempt God
“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.”
I never knew my grandfather.
As a kid, I always knew that my grandfather passed away when my earthly father was twelve years old. I knew he passed of a stroke, and that the stroke came unexpectedly. It wasn't until recently that I learned more details around what happened back in the mid-20th century, and it turned out to be a powerful lesson in why we shouldn't test God.
My father sat my wife and I down one evening when we were visiting, and proceeded to tell us this story that I will never forget. Below I paraphrase what he told us that day.
My father was a stubborn kid at times, especially when it came to believing things. He was the type that had to see something to believe it. Once he believed in something, however, no one or nothing could change his mind; he stuck to his beliefs after he committed. His faith in God was no exception.
My dad was raised in the church; his mother and father were stout believers in Jesus Christ, and His Deity. When my father was around the age of puberty, he started to question things and came into his own beliefs as so many of us did. At this time, he decided that he was now unsure of whether God was who He said He was, and started to challenge God. My dad asked Him to prove Himself as God, and said he would not move forward in faith until God did so.
Some time passed, and my father still held this position. One Sunday, he was sitting in church just like any other Sunday, when one of the lead ministers began to speak a word while weeping at the pulpit (which is basically the podium/stage of a church). The minister shared the following words, "The Lord has given me a word. Within one week, God is going to call home someone from this congregation." Keep in mind that this is a very small congregation in rural South Carolina, so it was basically like telling an average high school classroom size today that someone in there will die within a week. It was a tense, nervous moment for my father that caught his attention. He immediately remembered his challenge to God, and got an uneasy feeling in his stomach as soon as the minister spoke those words.
Monday. Everything was fine at school and my father came home, having forgotten what happened the day before. He noticed that his father (my grandfather) was not home, which was odd. Usually my grandfather arrived home before my dad since he got off work earlier than school let out. The memory of the minister's words quickly popped back into my father's head, so he went down the street to his cousin's house and they told him the news. My grandfather had suffered a stroke, but was still alive in the hospital. His condition wasn't great, and they would have to wait to see if he would recover, if he even survived the few days.
My father described to my wife and I the anguish and regret he felt at that moment, knowing that he challenged God to prove Himself. My dad pleaded with God to not prove Himself in that manner, in such an extreme form of taking away his father. He had only considered his own human/earthy ideas of what God would do, like many of us. We must remember though, His ways are higher than our ways, so we cannot possibly understand all of God - especially in this natural body. But my dad was twelve. We have less of an excuse.
Back to the story...Tuesday rolls around, everything is the same, no updates. Then comes Wednesday. The intercom came on in the middle of the day while my father was at school. The principal requested that my father and his younger sister to report to the office. When he heard those words, his stomach dropped. He already knew what happened. When he arrived at the office, the principal told my dad and aunt that they need to go home right away. My aunt went straight home, but not my father. He went immediately to the hospital. As he arrived, an attendee recognized my father and grabbed him before he could enter the room where my grandfather was staying.
My father refused to be held back and demanded to see his dad, but they would not let him in. Finally the hospital workers sat him down, and told him that his father - my grandfather - had passed away.
So many thoughts and emotions ran through my dad's head at that moment. How could this be? Why God? Why like this? He remembered the prophetic word his minister shared just three days earlier, that someone was going to be called home within a week. He knew that this was God's answer to his challenge, that He is who He says He is - a very, very hard lesson to learn for the oldest of four, at the age of twelve.
My father grew very angry with God for a long time after that, but although my father was upset with God, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that God was real. No one could tell him otherwise. It took him many years to finally reconcile and come back to the faith, but God knew who my father was going to become because of this, and how he was going to bring many to Christ in His name for the glory of God and His Kingdom.
After my wife and I heard this story, we sat quietly, at a loss for words for quite some time. I heard this story for the first time after 34 years of living on this earth. I felt for my father; that's a pretty tough lesson that I wouldn't wish anyone would have to feel, especially a kid. In the end, though, my father's testimony is a lesson for all of us to heed. God is sovereign, God is righteous, God is loving, God knows what's best for us, and God is the ultimate disciplinarian. So don't, please don't, tempt Him.