If God Is Protecting Me, Why Did This Happen?

If God Is Protecting Me, Why Did This Happen?

Why did the diagnosis come? Why did the accident happen? Why did the relationship fall apart? Why is money so tight? Why did someone I love have to die?

If we believe God loves us and protects us, those are fair questions. We might naturally assume that God's protection means He will keep the worst things from happening in the first place.

But maybe we've misunderstood what protection looks like.

Think about an umbrella.

An umbrella doesn't stop the rain. It doesn't change the weather or cause a storm to go around you.

It gives you covering while you're standing in the rain.

And that ordinary object can teach us something important about the protection of God.

Faithful People Still Go Through Storms

The Bible never paints a picture in which people who love God somehow get to live above the weather. In fact, some of the most faithful people in Scripture went through some of the worst storms.

Acts 27 gives us a dramatic example.

The apostle Paul was being transported by ship to Rome as a prisoner. The journey was already difficult, and Paul warned the men that continuing would be dangerous. But they sailed anyway.

At first, everything seemed fine. A gentle wind began to blow. The sea was cooperating. It looked as though continuing the journey had been the right decision.

Then everything changed.

A hurricane-force wind swept down on them. The crew lost control of the ship. The storm became so violent that they began throwing cargo and equipment overboard just to stay afloat.

Eventually, Luke writes:

“We finally gave up all hope of being saved.”
— Acts 27:20

Notice the word we.

Luke doesn't say that everyone else gave up hope while he and Paul sat peacefully in the corner. Paul and Luke were in that storm too. These were people who knew God. Paul was exactly where God had told him he was going to be, and yet the storm became so bad that there seemed to be no way out.

Being in the storm didn't mean God had abandoned him.

The Storm Didn't Stop

In the middle of all of this, Paul received a message from God. He would make it to Rome, and the lives of everyone sailing with him would be spared.

But something interesting happened.

The storm didn't immediately stop.

The wind was still howling. The ship was still being battered. They still couldn't see the sun or stars.

Nothing around Paul had changed.

But Paul knew something the storm couldn't change: he belonged to God.

Paul told the men:

“Keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.”
— Acts 27:25

Paul didn't say he had faith that the storm was about to stop. He didn't put his faith in the ship surviving.

He put his faith in God.

Sometimes the Ship Still Crashes

Then came some rather strange good news.

Everyone would survive.

And they were going to crash.

Eventually, the ship struck a sandbar and began breaking apart. Some of the men swam to shore. Others grabbed pieces of the broken ship and floated in.

And every one of them made it safely to land.

The ship didn't make it. But they did.

That distinction matters.

Sometimes we look at the broken pieces around us and assume they are evidence that God didn't protect us.

But perhaps God's protection doesn't always mean keeping the ship from breaking apart.

Sometimes His protection is getting us to shore.

What an Umbrella Can Remind Us

That's why an umbrella can be such a powerful reminder.

An umbrella doesn't promise that rain won't fall simply because we're standing beneath it. And trusting God doesn't mean we will never experience loss, disappointment, illness, uncertainty or heartbreak.

There will be storms. Some things in our lives may even break apart.

But what's broken around us doesn't mean God has abandoned us.

There are times when we can look back and recognize God's protection, the door that closed, the decision we almost made, or the accident that could have been much worse.

And there may be countless other times when God protected us and we never even knew it.

So perhaps the deeper question isn't simply:

Has God protected me?

Maybe it's:

Have I learned to trust Him with my life?

The next time you see an umbrella, or find yourself standing beneath one in the rain, let it remind you:

The presence of a storm doesn't mean the absence of God.

You are not walking through this life alone.

This post is based on “The Umbrella,” Part 1 of our OBJECTS sermon series at Hope Community Church of Anaheim. Scripture: Acts 27:13–44.