In the early months of the worst crisis of my life, God went AWOL.
Seriously. I was in shambles and God was a no show.
Thanks, I told God, for feeling the freedom to high tail it out of here
leaving me to fend for myself in this snake infested quicksand of catastrophe.
Being in literal, physical shock had a lot to do with my utter disconnect.
But, there were also a whole lot of questions I really needed answers to …..like….
why would you, God, put a sweet girl like me in a mess like this? I mean, You SAW all this coming right?
In the famous words of that great saint, Ricky Ricardo,
God had some “splaining” to do.
Sometimes, God does seem to ignore us in our most desperate hours.
I hate that.
And sorry, Carrie Underwood, great song, but why would I ever let
Jesus Take The Wheel
when it looks like he keeps falling asleep?
I hope you’ve never felt like God abandoned you
or experienced confusion over his whereabouts when bad news showed up at your door.
But, if you have, I want to pass along a few things I am learning:
1) Jesus said, ‘ No good tree bears bad fruit‘
which we can pretty safely rely on to mean: “no Good God makes anything bad.” Hmm.
You mean, God does not cause bad things to happen to good people?
Like God did not “take my sister to heaven”
because heaven needed her more than we did?
No. God is a Giver, not a taker.
This is not God trying to teach us a lesson,
or take away someone or something we love more than we love him
because he is a “jealous God.”
God is Good. God only gives Goodness.
2) When hard things happen God is not “causing” them –
but, hang on-
consider -also- that God might not be “preventing” them either.
Whaaat?
I thought God is supposed to protect us.
(It may have something to do with our idea of “protection.”)
But, from the beginning, God gifted us with a powerful thing called
free will.
Yay! I am free
to live and explore and love and enjoy my life as much as I please.
I LOVE MY FREE WILL!
And…THEY are also free to make ugly faces, ignore, judge, hate,
neglect, abuse, even murder someone
with that same lovely free will.
Oh, yikes.
I HATE YOUR FREE WILL!
The gifts of God are irrevocable–God doesn’t have a return policy on free will-
just like -thankfully- there are no returns on God’s love.
We are free to hurt each other till the cows come home
and God is not a rabid referee blowing the whistle at every little foul thing.
This is an eternal spiritual “law’ written in the Universe. For everyone.
We don’t get our free will revoked for wreckless living.
So-that stinks in stinky situations.
This is one case where it appears we can’t it both ways.
3) God “allowed” the potential for our suffering when God gave us all free will.
AND God, knowing this would be the case
has made provision for us whenever heartache comes.
Jesus reminds us of God’s promise to never leave us or forsake us,
regardless of what the free-willed world dumps on us.
God is ever-present in times of trouble.
Which I now translate to mean:
Whatever comes– God comes with it.
God is ever present to our pain and suffering, our fear and disappointment
and God comes right in there with it to overwhelm us
with Great Goodness, Grace & Hope.
This is what it really means to be able to say
‘With God ALL things are possible.’
The focus is always ‘with God.’
When we acknowledge, when we sink our full weight into the reality
that God With Us, is ever- in us strengthening,
Ever-over us comforting, ever-under us carrying,
it almost hardly matters what situation we face.
God -for sure -has got us fully covered.
Our job –the hardest part
–is to release our resistance to what is happening
& allow God’s Comfort & Goodness
to carry us through the day of trouble without our fighting it.
God cannot cause our suffering and may not prevent it.
But God sees it, knows it, feels it and redeems it.
God overwhelms whatever overwhelms us with Himself.
When we can find God’s presence in our pain
God is able to carry us through anything.
If you find yourself in times of trouble, conflict or brokenness
or if you sense there must be a better way to do this life
let us @youlivetrue.com be part of God’s being present to you. Contact us.
And Thanks! for passing this blog on
to someone you think might be interested.
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