by Mike Andrews

Mike Andrews was an engineer at John Fluke Manufacturing in Everett, Washington, the same company that employed John Emery. In October 1985, he posted three essays to net.religion.christian in rapid succession, each one working through a different aspect of his Christian faith. This one, the second, addresses a question that troubled him personally: why doesn't God just fix things? Why do people starve in Africa? Why did his friend Larry die of cancer? The essay does not offer easy answers. Instead, Andrews argues that God's gift of free will is real and binding even on God Himself — that God will not do for us what He has already given us the gifts and capacity to do ourselves. The parable at the end, about a father watching his toddler climb stairs and how the child sometimes just raises his arms to be carried, is one of the warmest images from this era of the Usenet archive.

One thing most noticeable on people's minds lately is "Why doesn't God take care of ___ if He is so good?" This is a question He and I have had some bad fights about lately; I fought, He listened. Sometimes I find myself yelling at God, telling Him that He needs to make someone, like my wife for instance, do something better. But He won't fix it. People starve to death in Africa, but God won't bless them with rain. God lets good people die horrible deaths, like my friend Larry with cancer a few months ago.

Something someone once told me is just now beginning to take hold — God won't do for us what He has already given us the gifts to do ourselves. With this He has shown me just how powerful the gift of free will is. He's shown me that instead of me concentrating on changing my wife, He wants me to change myself. So while trying to change myself I get frustrated because I can't do it myself. From this He wants me to choose to give up my vain pride. He won't take it away — I have to choose to give it to Him. In my case, repeatedly. I'm finding a new peace with my wife and my relationship with God. Please keep us in your prayers.

The people in Africa — God has given me a mind and body to get a job with, and money from that job that can be given to relief agencies, missionaries, and others working with the poor, homeless, sick. He's given me knees to get down on and pray for them. But why do I have to pray, I find myself asking. Lately I've been impressed with the fact that prayer opens a channel between me and God for His grace to flow through. Prayer shows me in a humbling way that I need God. He already knows that.

And with Larry, God has shown me how weak I am, and how much faith He wants me to have. My faith and trust in God has grown, as has my belief that Larry is happy in Heaven.

One more thing — a friend of mine told me how he wants to teach his one-and-a-half or two year old son to do things, like walk up stairs. He mentioned that one time after he and his family had been out, as they were walking up the stairs, his son was so tired that he just looked at his dad and raised his arms to be carried up this time. His dad picked him up. God did that with me. So I also learned that God will even help us when He's given us the gifts to do it ourselves.

God Bless,

Mike Andrews

Colophon

Written by Mike Andrews (John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA) and posted to net.religion.christian on October 3, 1985. Andrews posted three essays in rapid succession on October 3–4, 1985 (Article-IDs vax3.1489, vax3.1490, vax3.1491). This is the second of that series. His colleague John Emery posted his own testimony to the same forum just two weeks earlier, and both were readers of Peter Homeier's theological essays on the network.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

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