Hello Dear Friends,
Nice to join you all again. As promised, I am back and going to be posting more consistently. I know the last post was…heavy. Pain is not pleasant to experience or talk about. But it is an important topic. And we can’t heal from it if we don’t face it. I am still on that this week.
So, what do we say when people ask why? When the car accidents happen, when the cancer does not go into remission, when the relationships end despite our best efforts, and when someone close to us goes back home to God and we just want them here with us. Theology, philosophy, and a host of minds far more brilliant than mine have pondered this question and offered insight. So, take comfort in the fact you are not alone. But we are constant searchers of meaning, we ask the all-important why. It ultimately is what separates us from all other known life.
We want answers and we want them now. The harsh reality is that we will not get all of our answers on this side of heaven. We live in a broken, depraved, dying world where nothing is as it should be. Look at the beginning. Look in Genesis. God did not create us to suffer or die. We invited that in with a choice — a choice to go our own way and ignore God’s warnings. God wanted us to be in a close, loving relationship with Himself, each other, and creation. We decided we knew better. We have been doing the same thing since then. With each curse we speak, with each careless action, and with each instance of apathy, we make it very clear to the entire universe we want to go our own way, and we suffer dearly because of it.
God is not on His throne striking people down. He is working to redeem us. Transform us. Bring us back to love and life. And yes, the pain and strife will continue until the day we enter those celestial gates. But we are promised it will end. We are guaranteed eternity. An eternity of bliss and peace we cannot imagine with the one who made us, sustains us, and gave Himself so we could enjoy His Heaven forever. There will be no more tears, regrets, stress, or goodbyes.
So, what about the why? Paul does give us some insight that can help us understand. Look at 1 Corinthians 13: 9-10
For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.…(NIV)
We are not able to see and understand everything right now. We are finite. We are in a temporal state right now and can only see what is in front of us and what God chooses for us to see. He knows what we can handle. And He has promised to not leave us in the dark. So, “I don’t know” may be the only answer we can come up with at times. It is better to be honest than to lie or just speak empty words. But answers await us. Perfect clarity awaits us. Perfect peace awaits us. And we can start experiencing it little by little each day we walk with Jesus. Which path will you walk today?
Wounding and healing are not opposites. They’re part of the same thing. It is our wounds that enable us to be compassionate with the wounds of others. It is our limitations that make us kind to the limitations of other people. It is our loneliness that helps us to find other people or to even know they’re alone with an illness. I think I have served people perfectly with parts of myself I used to be ashamed of. ” ― Rachel Naomi Remen
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Image by Daniel Wanke from Pixabay
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