Tough Conversations
Ollie Chandler, homicide detective, has a strong sense of justice. That’s why he’s a cop and why he has tough questions for his Christian friends, Jake and Clarence in Randy Alcorn’s Deception:
“I don’t want to die trusting that God will make things okay If I can make things right, I do. So if God can make things right, why doesn’t He?… It seems like if you become a Christian you live happily ever after because you go to heaven, and that makes up for life’s miseries. Never mind that people suffer and die, and murderers get away. After all, there’s pie in the sky by and by. Sorry, but I’d rather have my pie here and now.”
Speaking of which, I noticed that huckleberry was Lou’s pie of the day.
Ollie’s friend Jake reads a few Bible verses to him.
“‘But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand The LORD is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land. You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.’”[Psalm 10]
“Did you catch that?” Jake asked. “God’s saying He’s going to make it all right one day . The judgment is coming ”
“But why wait?” Ollie responds. “ Why didn’t God just throw lightning bolts and fry these lowlifes?”
“Daddy used to say, ‘Nobody gets away wid nothin’,” Clarence said
“He knew God would bring justice, but he was willing to wait. He said to me, ‘They still has time to repent. If they doesn’t, yo’ daddy would sooner be the mule they whip than stand in their shoes before almighty God and be burnt to ashes by the fire of His holiness.’”
Excerpted from Deception by Randy Alcorn
Daily Reflection: What if you were in on this conversation, how would you respond to Ollie?