Floyd Landis, in four months time, won the Tour de France, was accused of cheating to win, is fighting to defend his title, his father in law committed suicide and Landis is now recovering from hip replacement surgery.
Not once, he said, has he thought, why me?
"I started with a point of view of the world and of life which precludes me from looking at me that way," he said. "Some things don't make sense and I don't try to make sense out of those things.
"It doesn't serve any purpose for me to get angry about something I don't have any control over. That's not to say I don't get angry about it sometimes or irritated but I try to avoid sitting around feeling sorry for myself. I don't see that as a practical human emotion. I see that as pointless."
I like Landis' attitude. There are many circumstances in my life that don't make sense. God knows all the details, but He hasn't revealed them to me. It doesn't make sense to try to figure them out, although I try at times. It only serves to frustrate me when I do.
There are many things about God that don't make sense to me either. Take, for instance, the triune nature of God we find in the Bible. I have tried to wrap my brain around that one. No matter how I try to explain it, it always subtracts from His glory. It is one of those secret things that belong to the Lord. I look at it this way: If I could explain God, he wouldn't be much of a God. He transcends human reason. He is different than we are. Listen to what God says, "These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes."(Psalm 50:21) In Numbers 23:19 it says, "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? "
It gives me comfort to know that God is bigger than I am and He is not like me. My circumstances may not make sense to me but they do to Him. He knows the past, present and future all at once because He is not bound by time like we are. That doesn't make sense to me either, but the Bible teaches it and it brings great comfort to me to know that He knows my future.
The next time something happens that doesn't make sense to you, or you come across something about God that doesn't make sense to you, let it remind you of how great God is and that the secret things belong to Him. I like the attitude of David in Psalm 131:1- 2. "LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child."
Dear Father, You are above all, different than we are, yet intimately involved in our lives. Help us to leave the secret things in Your hands and just do what You have commanded us to do in order to grow and bear fruit for Your Name. In Jesus' Name Amen.
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