The community around me is struggling with a loss right now. I won't go into details of the situation, because it's not my place, and because the details aren't important, in our lives we all face moments where we are left wondering, why? And I'd be lying right now if I told you I wasn't struggling, trying to make sense of it all, trying to understand why these things happen. When Ellie got cancer, battled and passed away, as much as that hurt, I could see the God in it all. I could see how God was using our situation, our hands and feet to do His work. It still was hard, but it made things seem way more meaningful. Now we are faced with a situation where I'm struggling to see The Lord.
Human nature seeks to try to figure this all out. We judge, we make accusations, we come to our own conclusions, when in reality, it doesn't matter if I understand why this all happened, or any of us do. For some reason, unknown to us, this was God's plan. He didn't have to run it by us first, He didn't need to call 5 friends and get their opinions....if He did, would we have said, "yeah sure, go ahead"? Even if He promised us something great would happen after, I don't think we'd say okay. If God came to me and said "Carly, I need to run this by you. I'm going to give your daughter an uncurable cancer. I'm going to cure her for like a month, but then I'm going to bring the cancer back full force. I'm going to let her die. You are going to experience heartache, your son is going to see things that most 5 year olds will never see in their life time....But hey, don't worry you will be able to share my words, people will be drawn to me because of your faith, families will praise me for their children, because of you....is all this cool with you?" My response probably would have been, "umm thanks for the offer, but can you choose someone else, someone a little bit stronger than me, another family with way more faith than ours? I mean it sounds good, but I'd rather not loose a child at the moment!"
We don't know the why, we may never know the why any of these things happens. Our job as Christians, is to not fall victim to the trash talk, to not entertain the evil thoughts that come creeping into our brains. To not lose our faith and hope because of what social media says. We are to rise above and not lose hope that there is some reason all things happen in our lives, whether they are tragic or fantastic.
We don't often get to pick our circumstances, we can only control our reactions to them. It's up to us to react in a way that says, no I don't understand it all and I don't pretend to, but I do believe in a God that is omnipresent. He knows everything that has, is and will happen in the world. We may never be around to see the good that comes out of a bad situation, but we have hope that it will happen.
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. Romans 8:18
For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:24-25
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
I just ask for prayers for all families who are suffering with unbelief, loss, understanding. Help me lift them up, and pray that the God that has so many times brought peace beyond understanding into my heart, will touch theirs.
Prayers, Praise and Pink
Carly
1 comment:
Bless you. So well said.
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