When Life Doesn't Make Sense

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When Life Doesn't Make Sense....

As I watched the program on television I repented to the Lord for my complaining. On the screen was a dear little boy who was going through more than I could possibly imagine. Afflicted with a rare disease, one that caused tumors the size of grapefruits to grow all over his face, his facial structure had been destroyed and many surgeries would be required to relieve him of the malformations of his face. Even then, his face would never be normal. His life would never be normal.

It is a cliche, but it is true: there is always someone going through something worse than what we are going through. When life seems unfair, consider this little boy and others like him, who face so much, so young, and in some cases succumb to them dying at an early age. How little there is that we should be complaining about.

Yet we do complain.

We wonder why certain things have happened to us or to those we love. Very often there is no emotionally or intellectually satisifying answer to our question. We are left in the dark in confusion, seemingly with no way out, no way to think our way through what has happened.

Where do we turn?

We turn to the character of God.

God asks us to trust him. Oh, that is hard at times! How can we trust when so much seems unfair or wrong? How can we trust when our world seems so messed up? How can we trust as we look into the face of the child we love and see them suffer? How can we trust when the child we love has died so young?

How? How?

There is no formula of "self exercise" that will create mental toughness or strength or the ability to trust in such circumstances. What we cling to is truth, truth about the character and promises of God.

There is much we don't understand and will never understand this side of eternity, but what we do know is this:

God never sins, never makes mistakes.

God loves us greatly, even when we cannot feel or see that love.

God's character is perfect in every way. He doesn't play games with us. He is not up there playing tricks on us. He isn't like that.

God is all knowing and he is all powerful. He knows what we are going through and could change it. So we should pray. But we should also be aware that God may answer our prayers in a way other than we would prefer. Why? Because he knows what we don't know about the future.

God has a plan which will be fully accomplished. No power on earth can alter that plan to redeem us and do away with all the suffering the world and those of us in it, go through.

God will one day take away all pain and tears and death. It is just that that day is not yet. So for now, we wait and trust, even when it is hard. And it often is. But God will reward us one day.

God has a glorious eternity waiting for those who accept his offer of forgiveness through Christ. He is trustworthy to keep his promises. We will be united with fellow believers who have gone before us. Of that we can be sure.

Words on a page. Just facts. No mental trickery, no gimics, no formulas. Just truth. That is what we cling to during difficult and baffling days: the truth about God, the truth about his character and the truth about his relationship with us.

There is more, but this is a start.

If you are going through a hard time, start at the top of the list and think through each one of these. The pain won't go away over night...and frankly may never go away. But in time as we come to understand God better, those things about this life that we don't understand will haunt us less. We'll come to know that God understands and that one day all will be revealed to us.

For now our job is to trust him.

God has not abandoned you, no matter what it looks like or feels like.