Not Knowing Is Allowed

I do not like the concept some churches push that a person is blessed or loved by God because God woke them up. What does that imply about the people who did not wake up? That they were less loved. Less worthy. Less blessed.

And then, almost without missing a beat, the same people will turn around and say, God called them home.

Which is it?

If God waking you up is proof of favor, then what are we saying about death. And if death is God calling someone home, then why do we speak about it selectively, carefully, conveniently.

Maybe we should stop speaking for God.

If we accept all things God, then all things God. Not just the comfortable ones. Not just the peaceful ones. Not just the ones that help us make sense of our fear.

I once heard a preacher say that God does not call everyone home. He said some people die prematurely. He listed drug overdoses. Even cancer. And I remember thinking, the audacity. How would you know? How would anyone know? On what authority does someone decide which deaths count as divine and which are dismissed as mistakes.

Is the belief really that God only calls people home if they die quietly in their sleep. That anything sudden, tragic, or uncomfortable must somehow fall outside of God.

That feels less like faith and more like control.

We want God to be sovereign, but only in ways that do not scare us. We want meaning, but only when it fits our narrative. So we assign intention where it comforts us and remove it where it does not.

Maybe the more honest position is humility. To admit that we do not know. To stop using God as punctuation for our fear or our need to explain the unexplainable.

If God is God, then not knowing is allowed.