It was a shocking moment, caught on multiple cameras. Charlie Kirk was a well-known young advocate for free speech and traditional American values, and one who often freely spoke about his faith in Jesus. He was known for gracious interaction with those who disagreed with him. And he was assassinated.

Thousands of people around the world felt shock, sorrow, grief, and anger that one hate-driven young man fired the shot that took Charlie Kirk’s life. The feelings that arose in the hearts of so many are authentic and valid and need not be denied.

Beneath the question of why someone would do such a heinous thing lies another question—a question that runs through the minds and hearts of every follower of Jesus. How did this happen? How could a good and sovereign God allow this?

There is no simplistic, clean answer to such questions. But I do believe there is a place to anchor our thinking—and not lose our grip on the God who has us in His grip.

If you were reading Joseph’s story in the book of Genesis, starting in Genesis 37, you would easily feel shock, sorrow, grief, and maybe even anger as you learn what happened to him. Unwarranted hatred came from his brothers, who decided to sell him into slavery into Egypt after first thinking to kill him. Those brothers deceived their father into thinking Joseph had been killed. Sold into slavery, Joseph was falsely accused of immoral overtures and was thrown in prison and forgotten. Even after being raised to a position of prominence in Egypt, the story still seems anything but truly good. The offenders were left without consequence, and Joseph’s father’s life was ruined over his loss.

However, the sorrow and shock of the story are ameliorated as we learn the ending. Joseph and his family were reunited. The narrative takes a previously unforeseen good turn. And then we hear Joseph’s wise assessment of what had unfolded in those years of his life.

Speaking to his brothers, having revealed himself to them, he explains: “As for you, you intended evil against me, but God intended good.” (Genesis 50:20)

We must listen carefully to Joseph’s words. He didn’t excuse the evil the brothers intended—they willed to do him incredible harm. But he didn’t say that God “turned that evil into good.” He actually affirmed that despite and through and over-ruling their evil intentions, God had good intentions. God carried out His will in the face of their evil wills.

And when we come to the end of Joseph’s story, our hearts are settled. We have felt the sorrow, grief, and anger at what the brothers intended. Still, we discover (unbeknownst to us earlier) that God was also intending something in what unfolded. And it is only because we have been led to a place where we can catch a glimpse of God’s good intention in the face of intended moral evil that we can rest.

In situations like the one the nation is facing in light of the evil that befell Charlie Kirk, we don’t yet have any sense, any indication, or any revelatory help to understand what God’s good intentions might be. And so, we can feel enraged, overwhelmed, and perhaps even left questioning God’s goodness and presence in the world in which we live.

Lacking omniscience, lacking the eternal long view, we are left without a sense of God’s intentions. We can fall into insisting—whether in our hearts or in conversations with others—that there is no way any good intention could come out of what happened. But such a view can cause us to become untethered to the sovereign God who is working His perfect will out in the world.

Perhaps it would be better to speak—to ourselves and to others—and say with honesty that what the assassin did was reprehensible and inexcusably evil. And then affirm with clarity and faith–even in the face of our uncertainty–that what God is doing in this very same act will one day come to be understood as part of His intended good.

Feeling and thinking this way in the face of moral evil will keep us from pretending that something evil was good. But feeling and thinking this way will also keep us from acting as if someone good (our God) is somehow inattentive or, even worse, doing something evil.