Where did God come from? What about evolution? Why do bad things happen to good people?

I spent twenty-some-odd years as an atheist and (Praise God!) about a decade now walking with the Lord. These questions, among others, were tricky to reason my way through on my journey to faith. I’m sure I’m not alone. And I know it’s not just non-believers who stumble here. I’ve discovered many Christians have terrible answers to these types of common questions. But here’s what I believe about these old chestnuts: Hard questions reveal amazing opportunities to strengthen one’s faith.

As I was beginning to soften to the idea of a “Man in the Clouds,” my husband asked me a question that opened the door for new growth: “Could you have been created?” He didn’t ask if I could have been created by God—which I would have been inclined to reject—but he encouraged me to consider a broader context.

My first thought was to examine why I didn’t believe I could be created by God. This led me down the road discussed in my last column of what I had learned (and not learned) growing up and the relationships that supported and influenced that school of thought. But for the first time, I began to consider a startling thought… Just because most everyone I knew believed something to be true didn’t necessarily mean it was the truth.

“Just because most everyone I knew believed something to be true didn’t necessarily mean it was the truth.”

I promise you this was an unsettling reality to be faced with in my early twenties, but I knew this revelation warranted further consideration. I didn’t believe I could be created by God because I’d bought into the Big Bang Theory. Although I couldn’t articulate the theory well, I remembered being quite convinced of its authenticity in eighth grade. Perhaps we all—believers and unbelievers alike—have some stale beliefs that could use a solid dusting and even some re-evaluation? I certainly found that to be true.

Upon re-examination, not only did I find the Big Bang Theory was full of holes, but I also found myself getting hung up in some familiar places. In the Creation story, I struggled with the idea of eternity and believing God just always was—that he wasn’t created by something or someone else (which then presents the problem of who else created the next creator and so forth forever). But as I looked at the Big Bang Theory through my adult-lens, I found the same problem. What rock, gas, or substance existed to create said Big Bang? Where did it come from? It had to already have existed. Something had to be eternal.

“What rock, gas, or substance existed to create said Big Bang? Where did it come from? It had to already have existed. Something had to be eternal.”

This might seem trivial, but these are huge things to reconcile. And not just for non-believers. Do you know who else struggles to reconcile how evolution—the primary school of thought put forth in public education—fits in with the creation account? Christians! Our children are leaving the church at record numbers upon graduating high school and even more so after higher education. It’s not because of a lack of exposure to church, but rather because of a lack of answers to tough questions.

Whether our kids are asking us these things or not, they’re wondering how everything fits together. And if we’re not asking these questions and, more importantly, unpacking them with our Bibles in hand, then we won’t be able to equip the next generation with the necessary tools to stand against the schemes of the enemy.

I asked these questions of my husband, Tom. Although he didn’t have every answer for me, he knew how to disciple. He had stumbled over these very conundrums and found logical answers within Scripture. Answers that satisfied him and gave direction for me. Instead of catching him off-guard and causing him to doubt, I could see I’d encountered an area of rock-solid faith in my husband that gave me—a seeker of truth—new inspiration.

For example, I wrestled with this problem: “Is it more likely that a rock or a gas existed eternally and exploded to cause everything we experience around us? Or is it more probable that it was an intelligent being of some sort—maybe God—that did the creating?” What I came to realize is that eternity existed in both scenarios. This gave me an open door to move towards faith.

Evolution follows a similar path but is more likely to cause a believer to stumble. The world through “science” wants to propose that everything and anything is possible if you throw in enough years. Yes, every blade of grass, elephant, germ, human, and sea creature came from the same single cell through a series of small changes because millions and billions of years passed. Of course, put this way, it sounds ridiculous. But the church, our kids—and many of us adults—believe it can be both/and. God created everything, and He did it through the process of evolution. This forces one to conclude that when God said he made everything according to its kind (Genesis 1) in just the one day, He was being hyperbolic.

Y’all, if we can question God in this area, what else does it open the door to? We can’t be idle in these conversations. We have to be the ones offering sound answers. But, to offer them, we must first have them.

I struggled with these questions on my journey to faith over ten years ago. Humankind has been wrestling this out since the enemy entered the Garden. Our hearts and our children’s hearts are not immune to these stumbling blocks. We can’t ignore them, and we most certainly must not view them as inconsequential. We must face what might be misunderstood as a contradiction with the truth offered in the Word of God. There are answers to these questions, and we need to be equipped to respond.

Why do bad things happen to good people? This is perhaps the most common question I encounter as I speak to non-believers as well as those on the fence in their faith. There are so many thought-provoking and compassionate ways to approach this one. I know, in my personal story, every single “bad” thing—sexual trauma, abuse, addiction, depression and anxiety, pain, loss—had to transpire in the exact ways and times they did for me to be positioned for my rescue. I had to learn hard lessons in hard ways. I had to walk through storms to appreciate the sunshine. I would have never recognized the rare blessing of my marriage if I hadn’t had abusive relationships as a comparison. Because of the bad, I don’t take the good for granted.   

Scripture tells us to “consider it a great joy… whenever [we] experience various trials, because [we] know that the testing of [our] faith produces endurance (James 1:2).” As I said before, these questions offer opportunities for our faith to be tested. And then strengthened.

For me, so many breakthroughs came on the other side of chewing on hard concepts. If my husband had shirked my inquiries and made me feel silly, my faith wouldn’t be what it is today. It is through these seasons of questioning that I have grown strong. It is from leaning into their possible answers that so much revelation has occurred.

In a world full of confusion and deceit, this is no time to shy away from hard questions. The enemy is doing his best work in this generation. Our country currently thinks there are many answers to the question, “Can a man get pregnant?” There is a popular film titled “What is a Woman?” For the sake of our own faith walks, as well as those coming up behind us, let’s not just bring the questions. Let us desire to have answers. Let us become a source of divine truth.  //

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Wendy Cunningham is wife to Tom and homeschool mom to three amazing gifts from God. In addition to that calling, she is an entrepreneur and author. Her book What If You’re Wrong?, blog, and devotionals can be found at gainingmyperspective.com. She is also host of the podcast Gaining My Perspective. Wendy loves Jesus and inspiring people to step into their calling—whatever that might look like in this season. When she’s not working, writing, traveling, or podcasting, she can be found homesteading and chasing kids and cows on her farm in Middle Tennessee.