Speaking to The Christian Post, Christian country star Granger Smith spoke about his three-year-old son’s tragic drowning death, one that occurred nearly five years ago, and how suffering can draw people closer to God and their faith. He used that to explain how God’s plan can often involve very sad personal moments, comparing them to the process that goes into refining metals.
Beginning the Christian Post interview, the 44-year-old singer explained that our lives might involve much suffering and tragedy, but that God uses such horrific moments to draw us closer to Him. Smith said, “For reasons that we don’t fully know, God’s plan will always involve suffering in this present world; pain and suffering draw us nearer to God, and God uses that for many purposes.”
Continuing, he explained that suffering is what refines and betters us as people, saying, “As a father, I wouldn’t want my children to grow up in a perfect utopia. I want to introduce suffering that I know they can handle so that it produces in them a greater good. Suffering has a way of doing that in all things. It’s not just people; this is how metals are refined, with heat and pressure.”
Building on that, Smith said that God is “near to the brokenhearted” because of how He comforts those who suffer, saying, “So, why wouldn’t a Heavenly Father, who is far superior to anything I could ever imagine as far as planning, nurturing, caring and providing, also introduce suffering into our lives for the greater good or His greater glory? We see this epitomize itself at the cross when Jesus enters humanity in the flesh to involve Himself in suffering. We have a God who is near to the brokenhearted.”
He then added that, half a decade after his son’s tragic death, his family is getting by and in a good place, though sadness is still present to some degree. He said, “It almost feels unfair to even say that because we’ve been through so much. But it is only by God’s grace that we are doing well. The kids are doing well. Amber and I are doing well. The sun really is shining upon our family right now. We’re in a beautiful season right now. That doesn’t mean that it’s without sadness or without grief, but it does mean that it can coexist with joy.”
Smith also spoke about why he is now studying at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, saying that he wants to be able to speak to people about God and faith from a place of knowledge and understanding. He said, “There’s a lot of really wise people, by God’s grace, that have been pouring into me a lot.”
He continued, “My goal is to be able to speak that language in a way that whatever audience I’m in front of can understand. I don’t want to come in with all this book knowledge; I want to be able to discern what’s the right thing to say in the moment that’s based on the Bible. I want to speak from what the Bible says, and then in light of my feelings, instead of my feelings dictating what the Bible says.”
Smith then explained how people need to be properly instructed, as much of the “theology” in the world is bad and doesn’t serve people well, making the truth about the word of God ever more important. “There’s a lot of bad theology out there based on feelings and how we’re reacting to the world around us, and we’re reacting and creating theologies without even knowing it. It’s really, really dangerous,” he explained.
Featured image credit: By Notdost – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109796615