Trusting God In Difficult Times
Our friend, KB, sat down with JBo from the BOOST Morning Show to talk about the recent hurricanes in Florida. Being from the Sunshine State, KB’s family was directly impacted by the tragedy. So he was the perfect person to talk to about what it looks like to trust God in difficult times and in tragedy. Where is God when devastation like this comes?
Check out this powerful discussion with KB.
View this video with KB, and other interviews with BOOST artists videos on the BOOST Radio YouTube Channel.
JBo:
You reside in Florida, right?
KB:
I reside in Florida, yep. Tampa, Florida.
Were you affected at all by the recent hurricane that happened there? You and your family?
KB:
In a very minimal way. Now, it was aiming. It was on its way to us. I was in Nashville the day before it hit. And I was going to try to fly home Tuesday night, and they canceled all the flights. They shut down all the airports. So me and the crew, we all got in a van and drove through the night, 11 hours, to get home. And-
JBo:
Because your family was still home.
KB:
Yeah, my family was at home. They were sheltering at my in-law’s house. But it was supposed to do some significant damage to Tampa, and it was on the way. But man, this must be like the 10th time in a hundred years, it was about to hit us, and by the mercy of God, it turned and went south.
JBo:
Man, man.
KB:
Now, it was devastating though. It’s a bittersweet moment of rejoicing because it took hundreds of lives.
JBo:
Yeah, it did. And the devastation. And the heartache. And you had mentioned that you had a little bit of damage but nothing-
KB:
Nothing serious.
JBo:
… too severe. Family’s good?
KB:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yep.
JBo:
So when you look at these photos and these videos, and I’m talking family’s gone, property’s gone, entire community’s wiped away, how do you find God in that difficult time? How can somebody say that there’s still a God for something so horrible like that to happen?
KB:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think when I see that devastation, one, I am reminded of the mercy of God because there’s nothing in Tampa or in me. There’s nothing intrinsic to our community that would mean that we deserve not to get hit. So I see mercy in that. The second thing that I see is I’m reminded that things are not okay here. I think that-
JBo:
“Here,” you mean on earth?
KB:
In this world.
JBo:
Yeah, in this world. Yeah.
KB:
Things are not okay in this world. That things have been broken. They have went awry. There is a fall. And you could, by way of being numb by culture and your own pursuits and ambitions, begin to think that you have heaven now. This is not heaven. This is not home. People are leaving, and things are falling apart, which says to me, that’s not the time to run from a savior. That’s the time to depend on one.
JBo:
Would you say it’s hard to depend on a savior when you see devastation like that?
KB:
It is, it is. It is hard to… your first reaction to be, “Oh, God must have purposes in this.” But I think once you get past the devastation, and the devastation that we’re experiencing here is just here. Globally, there are natural disasters. And this is what the air is doing. But this is not even to factor in corrupt governments and oppression. Yes. That this place is just riddled with sins.
So I think when you get past the original shock, you got to ask the question, “what went wrong?” And if you ask that question, I hope your next question would be, “Well, how can this be made right?” And I would argue that it is the gospel. That it is the gospel message that has the audacity to say that there is a path to redemption. I’m thinking about Romans chapter eight, where Paul is saying that creation is groaning. What do you think that sounds like? Yeah. It sounds like hurricanes. Tornadoes.
JBo:
Earthquakes. Floods.
KB:
Yes. All of that.
KB:
But then he goes on to say that creation is eagerly awaiting for the sons and daughters of God to appear. And that when they appear, creation is hopeful because it was through the fall of man that drug creation into the curse. But it’s through the redemption of man that brings liberation to the cursed creation.
JBo:
Come on. Have you seen the… What was it? A TikTok or…? “Holy Spirit, activate.”
I think as Christians sometimes, it’s easy to look at things… I wouldn’t say easy, but we can sometimes look at the devastation and say, “God will work things out for good.” And when you’re not a believer though, that sounds silly. How do we as Christians comfort those who are looking at us, like, “What? How can you say there’s good in this?”
KB:
I think we need to be very clear to say that this is not good.
And full stop. I think we’re afraid that if we don’t immediately jump to, “Oh, but this is going to work out. There’s a reason, it’s a purpose, everything happens for a…” If we don’t get to that quickly, then people might look at God weird. Well, people are experiencing this world without knowledge and without truth and without a clear vision of what any of this means. So I would expect for people to have doubts and questions and anger and all of that.
So I think that, for those who are on the outside looking in, I want you to know this is awful. And as you think about the mystery of why God is allowing this to tarry, you got to start eliminating some reasons for why. One of the reasons that we feel is, is because he doesn’t care.
And to that I would say, we know for sure that’s not what it is, because God took the suffering of people so serious that He wrapped Himself in flesh, that He might experience it himself. Not just death, but death on a cross. So what we see in Jesus is a unique… This is a unique angle on religion in this world. Because you have God joining the suffering, not speaking to it from a distance, but wrapping Himself in it and then going all the way through to the point of death and death on the cross.
JBo:
Yeah. As if he was a criminal.
KB:
Absolutely. Now, when you see that, we say, “Well, it cannot be that God doesn’t care. Then I want to remind you of creation. That God creates people in His image so that your tears…” I love this, man.
JBo:
Come on, KB.
KB:
I got emotional a couple Sunday days ago at church reading this. And as the pastor was teaching it, it made me think about his verse, I went and read it, where the Bible says He holds the tears of the saints in bowls. That the tears that you are crying are precious to God. He holds them. He counts them. He’s moved by them. It does not make sense now. And there is something about that that is shaping us and leading us to trust Him. But I’ll tell you this, dear brother, dear sister, especially those on the outside looking in, like, “The only thing I want to know is how you going to make this right now?”
It is not like somebody has a better explanation. If you want to believe that this is basically just Darwinian evolution, survival of the fittest, and just stuff happens, death happens, and universe doesn’t care, then there is a hopelessness that is unable to help anyone as they go through this.
“Getting rid of God is not a better alternative.“
But I think that there’s a reason. C.S. Lewis speaks to this, that we thirst because water exists. We get hunger because there’s something out there that could satisfy that. We have God written on our hearts because he is actually out there, and he is the better alternative. His promises are better for us. The way he would have us think through these things is where we find hope.
Finding Hope Every Day
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