Friday, September 14, 2012

When Cliches Don't Cut It

I've had a lot of hard questions circling in my head.  I keep struggling for answers, and finding that I can come up with solutions if I focus just on the outcomes of people. I can also get answers if I look at the Bible, but the two aren't meshing. My people solutions look very different from my God solutions. This is hard. 
I keep wrestling. 
When younger, I'm pretty sure I would have just gone with a pat "All things work together for good to them that love God." And then attribute wayward children, hurt marriages, bad things... to a lack of love of God. I'm not so sure now, people that genuinely love God are suffering these very things. Did they go wrong? Or someone else?
I believe God's word is true.  So did He mean something different by the good things he promised for those who love Him? 
I keep wrestling.
How can I keep myself from falling... If these people who I respect, can't stand? I know as well as anyone else that I'm just as prone to sin as they are.
Then it hits me - Faith.  Faith is what we hold onto when we don't see, when it doesn't always makes sense.  I know enough about My God to know that He is True. That He is Trustworthy. That He is God. 
These things still don't make any sense.
I continue to search for my answers...  And I have peace, because I can trust God, because faith is a choice. And I choose.
In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the World. ~Jesus
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5 comments:

  1. Renee ShaferSeptember 14, 2012 at 2:38 PM

    I love how you end this post, with the powerful empowering words of Jesus - "be of good cheer, I have overcome the World!"

    I am muddling through some of these questions myself. Why do innocent children get sexually abused? Why is my brother gay? Why is my friend at church, married only a year, losing her eye sight (and there is no cure for her condition)?

    Where ARE the good things that come to those who love Him?

    I wonder sometimes if we don't find some of the good things, because we must EMBRACE the ugly to ultimately find the beautiful?

    That's not an answer. It's just another question.

    I am SO GLAD that we CAN BE GLAD.
    That HE HAS OVERCOME.
    AND, that He EMPOWERS us.

    LOVE YOU.

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    1. UnknownSeptember 18, 2012 at 3:30 PM

      Thanks a lot for adding more questions...! Jk...I wonder if we will want to ask Jesus these things when we get to heavan, or if it will 'click'

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  2. HayleySeptember 14, 2012 at 3:18 PM

    This is beautiful and well said!!

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  3. StefSeptember 14, 2012 at 5:57 PM

    Thank you for sharing! I identify with what you wrote. There are so many times that trying to make God's wisdom and plan match with what is actually taking place seems impossible. However, God can do the impossible. When you mentioned that God says that all things work together for good to those who love Him, this is still true and still key. It also helps to remember that God knows the end result of ALL. When I watch a loved one suffer pain and serious illness who is living a godly life, it is hard to understand why. Yet, I know that God loves this person even more than I do and that He wants only the best. Watching loved ones make wrong, sinful choices is painful and I don't know how God can use it for good. but I know that He still can and He will. As humans, we tend to think in terms of present best. God thinks in terns of ultimate, eternal best. Sometimes, God allows little glimpses along the way of the far better good He is working. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

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    1. UnknownSeptember 15, 2012 at 3:03 PM

      Thanks for sharing Stephanie. It is really encouraging to see people like you who hang onto God when in a marathon of tough stuff. I completely agree that Romans 8:28 isn't untrue, just that, like you said, its interpretation might be more - eternal, than present tense.

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