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.

Going through a hard time?

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Going through a hard time? Mistreated by those who were closest to you? Trust me, I know what it is like. And there is no explaining at times how people who are believers in Christ may act toward a fellow believer. Facing such circumstances can create the most baffling times in one’s life.

Where is God? Why did he allow the behavior that hurt so much? Where is justice, right and wrong?

Our feelings come close to the words of Psalm 73 when they say:

I was envious of the arrogant, as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains in their death; and their body is fat. They are not in trouble as other men. Nor are they plagued like mankind. Their pride is their necklace; the garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness; the imaginations of their heart run riot.

They mock, and wickedly speak of oppression; they speak from on high. They have set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue parades through the earth.

We wonder why people who have done wrong to us seem to be going on about their way "prospering" while we are suffering because of their actions.

I remember counseling a wife whose marriage had been destroyed by her husband’s philandering. She ached for her children and herself and very understandably you could hear the bitterness in her voice.

How easy it was, not having experienced such betrayal, to say, "Don’t become bitter. I know it looks like your ex-husband is going on with his life without consequences, but that is not the case. God will be there for you."

The right words, but without a full understanding of the desperate feelings of loss and betrayal one goes through when betrayed by those closest to them—a spouse, a fellow believer, a friend.

It is so easy to think that we should just "buck up" when facing such situations, or that others should too. "Just get over it" we think, but won’t say—at least we shouldn’t.

But things aren’t that easy with our frail flesh. We hurt and we bleed and we need God’s help to get through it.

Our minds wander and we can even think as the Psalmist did as he continued in Psalm 73:

Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure, and washed my hands in innocence. For I have been stricken all day long and chastened every morning.

But the Psalm isn’t written at the moment that Asaph, the writer, was betrayed. It was written later. He begins his words not where we started above, but earlier with the results of the lesson he had learned that what we see and feel are not always what is happening around us.

He says in verse 2:

But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling; my steps had almost slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant, as I saw the prosperity of the wicked...

He tells us that he almost fell into the trap of believing that there was no point in doing what God wanted, because suffering results for those who do, and for those who mistreat others, there only seems to be prosperity.

In the end he learned something important that he shares with us:

When I pondered to understand this, it was troublesome in my sight until I came into the sanctuary of God. Then I perceived their end. Surely Thou does set them in slippery places; though dost cast them down to destruction……when my heart was embittered, and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before Thee.

When Asaph was embittered by the seeming inequity of what was happening around him, he had forgotten that the last chapter of the story had not yet been written. Finally he understands and help those of us who would follow in his embittered footsteps, realize the truth:

Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; Thou has taken hold of my right hand. With Thy counsel Thou wilt guide me, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

For behold, those who are far from Thee will perish, Thou has destroyed all those who are unfaithful to Thee. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord my refuge, that I may tell of all Thy works.

Going through a hard time? Having trouble thinking your way through it? I understand. But skip to the last chapter of the "book" of your life, rather than thinking only of the chapter you are in.

Remember, God does bring justice in the end, and that:

...the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord my refuge, that I may tell of all Thy works.

Remain steadfast. Continue to do right. God will not let you go. Though you may not feel his presence, count on it. He is walking with you through the fire and has a better chapter coming at the end of the book.

The Urgency of our Task

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The Urgency of Our Task

The winds of time are blowing through the trees outside my window. The voice of our inevitable end is carried on their currents.

The daily setting of the sun marks another segment of life irretrievably removed from our measured portion of seconds.

I am stirred to be about my Father’s work.

People with other agendas, who feed the dying the arsenic of social change rather than the Bread of Life, have reminded me of the urgency of our task.

The night is fast approaching when no man can work. Let us rise from our slumber and sprint toward the battle lines.

Gordon Magee October 1989