When life is not fair...
When life is not fair what do you do? My family and I have had a rough 2 1/2 weeks, and I am wondering why everything has been thrown at us. Why?! Between Tim spending 6 days in the hospital and then going to Philly for Jack's surgery and receiving a call that a close friend to the family was hit by a train and killed at 23 years old. Pardon my french but what the f*ck?! Did we not have enough on our plate already? Why take a 23rd year old? I can't help but to lose some faith when stuff like this happens. I give to tons of charities and causes. My parents did an amazing thing of adoption, my mother-in-law works with sick babies. Why us always then? Why everything at once?
I still pray that Eric will be able to cope after losing his best friend. Our family will be a friend short from now on, but heaven has gained another angel. I still wonder why God works the way he does. Why he takes the people in the order he does.
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When God took on flesh, He did not refuse to suffer pain. He endured pain and suffering. Certainly that must mean something in the whole scheme of things.
Second is that Jesus says that His kingdom is not of this world. God loved the world by sending His Word (Jesus) into the world. But He is not fond of the world or how it operates (the selfishness, sin, the harm that people do to others and to themselves). God loves His world that's coming, where there is no more mourning, crying, death or pain. That's His kingdom.
Third, God alone is good. So however we might view things, we do not know the full story if our perspective is causing us to think ill of God. He is perfect. He is perfectly fair. He is good. The way He is doing things is the right and good way, even if we do not fully comprehend His ways.
Jesus said in this world you will have difficulties. He made that statement to people who were going to be hated for His name's sake (hated for believing in Him). But Jesus also added this: "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
God has not left us alone in this world. We have not been abandoned by Him.
Unlike us, God knows what will happen tomorrow, next week, next year, the next decade. He says, "I am God, and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning." He knows what will happen in the world. More importantly, He knows what will occur in your life and can be there for you, if you've chosen to include Him in your life. He tells us that He can be "our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble." But we must make a sincere effort to seek Him. He says, "you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."
That doesn't mean that those who know God will escape difficult times. They won't. When a terrorist attack causes suffering and death, those who know God will be involved in that suffering also. But there is a peace and a strength that God's presence gives. One follower of Jesus Christ put it this way: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
Reality tells us that we will experience problems in life. However, if we go through them while knowing God, we can react to them with a different perspective and with a strength that is not our own. No problem has the capacity to be insurmountable to God. He is bigger than all the problems that can hit us, and we are not left alone to deal with them.
God's Word tells us, "The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him." And, "The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them."
Keep your head up and your hope in him.
*Hugs* ~Stephanie