The Lord has not yet revealed His reasons for permitting the plane crash that took the lives of my four friends in 1987. They were among the finest Christian gentlemen I have ever known. Hugo Schoellkopf was an entrepreneur and an extremely able member of the board of directors for Focus on the Family. George Clark was a bank president and a giant of a man. Dr. Trevor Mabrey was a gifted surgeon who performed nearly half of his operations at no charge to his patients.
He was a soft touch for anyone with a financial need. And Creath Davis was a minister and author who was loved by thousands. They were close friends who met regularly to study the Word and assure mutual accountability for what they were learning. I loved these four men. I had been with them the night before that last flight, when their twin-engine plane went down in the Absaroka mountain range in Wyoming. There were no survivors. Now, their precious wives and children are left to struggle on alone.
Why? What purpose was served by their tragic loss? Why are Hugo and Gail's two sons, the youngest of the children among the four families, deprived of the influence of their wise and compassionate father during their formative years? I don't know, although the Lord has given Gail sufficient wisdom and strength to carry on alone.
At the first mention of the "awesome why," I think also of our respected friends, Jerry and Mary White. Dr. White is president of the Navigators, a worldwide organization dedicated to knowing Christ and making Him known. The Whites are wonderful people who love the Lord and live by the dictates of Scripture. But they have already had their share of suffering. Their son Steve drove a taxi for several months while seeking a career in broadcasting. But he would never achieve his dream. Steve was murdered by a deranged passenger late one night in the usually quiet city of Colorado Springs.
The killer was a known felon and drug abuser who had a long history of criminal activity. When he was apprehended, the police learned that he had called for the cab with the intent of shooting whoever arrived to pick him up. Any number of drivers might have responded. Steve White took the call. It was random brutality, beyond any rhyme or reason. And it occurred within a family that had honored and served God for years in full-time Christian service.
Further examples of inexplicable sorrows and difficulties could fill the shelves of the world's largest library, and every person on earth could contribute illustrations of his own. Wars, famines, diseases, natural disasters, and untimely deaths are never easy to rationalize. But large-scale miseries of this nature are sometimes less troubling to the individual than the circumstances that confront each of us personally. Cancer, kidney failure, heart disease, sudden infant death syndrome, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, divorce, rape, loneliness, rejection, failure, infertility, widowhood--these and a million other sources of human suffering produce inevitable questions that trouble the soul. Why would God permit this to happen to me!? It is a question every believer--and many Pagans--have struggled to answer. And contrary to Christian teachings in some circles, the Lord typically does not rush in to explain what He is doing.
By Dr. James Dobson