Pages

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Where Are You?

Sometimes life just stinks! People lose their jobs, families are ripped apart, loved ones die, and yet we are supposed to go on like nothing ever happened.
It’s like the old saying, “grin and bear it”. But sometimes that is just not so easy. There are days that I just don’t want to grin and bear it.
I am one of those people who is upbeat by nature. I am expected at all times to have a smile on my face and the words “everything is going to be okay” flowing out of my mouth at all times.
But today, I woke up angry. I am mad at the world. I am frustrated, aggravated, sad, moody…and to be honest, I just don’t feel like hiding it.
I know you are probably thinking, well I just need to close this post now and read no further, but please don’t. There are some important truths to be told here today.
I guess the reason I am so angry is because my heart hurts for all my family and friends who are going through a rough time right now. I want to see them smiling again and not hurting. I want their worlds to be normal again and not turned upside down. I want to fix them all! But then I remember I am not God.
So how do you get past times when you feel like I do right now? How do you get to the point that you stop asking God, Where are you Lord? Why? What did they do to deserve this treatment? And then God graciously shows me in His word.
John 9 is the story of the man who was born blind. Everyone thought that he or his family had done something wrong and that his blindness was punishment from God. But it was far from that. Look at what it says here:
As he went along, he saw a blind man from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.
John 9:1-2
God showed me that me and my friends are not going through these things as forms of punishment, but we are allowed to go through them so that God might be displayed in our lives.
I know that this sounds harsh. I, for one, did not like this answer. I told God that it wasn’t fair. Then He gently reminded me that like Naomi and Ruth, I could either get better or I could get bitter.
Situations and problems in life can make us bitter. But if we choose to trust God, that He has our best interests at heart, then we will get better. We might have times of bitterness, because frankly, we are humans. But when we trust God and we allow His peace and strength to uphold us and shine through us, His glory is most definitely seen by others who are going through something similar. They look at us and think, “Wow. If they can make it, so can I”.
So today, whatever you are going through, trust God. Know that He has not left you. Allow Him to carry you through your problems. Trust Him to be the one to love the hurt away.
He did it for me, and He can do it for you.