Our Pain Reminds Us,This is Not Our Home.

I think it's safe to say that this week is heartbreaking for everybody.  As I watched the news unfold, I've felt absolutely helpless. I cried as I thought about the wives whose husbands wouldn't come home that night. For the kids who would never hug their parents again. For friends who never had the chance to say goodbye.

 In the midst of tragedy it is so easy to lose heart and question God's goodness. The question that has been repeating in my head is: why? Lord, WHY did you let this happen?

There is no easy answer as to why these awful things happen. That's where faith comes in. Faith exists where there is no satisfying visible evidence or answer as to why tragedy occurs. We will never understand God's reasoning. If we did, then He would be no better than us, and we know that to be entirely false. His ways are higher than ours

God doesn't rejoice in tragedy. In fact, I think it saddens Him just as much if not more than it saddens us. John 11:35 is one of the shortest verses in the Bible, but it speaks volumes. Two short words: Jesus wept. When Jesus heard about Lazarus' death, his heart was broken. I truly believe that just as Jesus did with Lazarus, he also does for us. He cries with us. His heart breaks with ours. He is just as deeply saddened as we are. But in the midst of the sadness and confusion, He brings peace. One of my all time favorite verses is John 16:33- “I have spoken these things to you so that you shall have peace in me. You shall have suffering in the world, but take heart, I have overcome the world." God doesn't promise an easy life, he straight up tells us that we WILL suffer. There is no way around it. We live in a fallen and sinful world that will bring us deep grief.  

That “why” question goes back thousands of years. It was asked in the Old Testament by Job and the writers of the Psalms.But if you’ve never asked why our world is infected with pain and suffering, you will when they strike you with full force or they come to a loved one. And Jesus said they are coming. Unlike some other religious leaders who wrote off pain and suffering as just being illusions, Jesus was honest. He told us the truth. He said in John 16:33, “You will have suffering in this world.” He didn’t say you might – he said it is going to happen.

I cannot stand in the shoes of God and give a complete answer to that question. I don’t have God’s mind. I don’t see with God’s eyes. First Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now we see

things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”
  

We can’t understand everything from our finite perspective. And frankly, the people suffering from the Westgate tragedy don’t need a big theological treatise right now; any intellectual response is going to seem trite and inadequate. What they desperately need now is the very real and comforting presence of Jesus Christ in their lives. 

You might say, “No, he can’t in my circumstance. The harm was too great, the damage was too extreme, the depth of my suffering has been too much. No, in my case there’s no way God can cause any good to emerge.”

But if you doubt God’s promise, listen to what a wise lady said to me , God took the very

worst thing that has ever happened in the history of the universe — the death of God on the cross — and turned it into the very best thing that has happened in history of universe: the opening up of heaven to all who follow Him. So if God can take the very worst circumstance imaginable and turn it into the very best situation possible, can he not take the negative circumstances of your life and create something good from them?

He can and He will. God can use our suffering to draw us to Himself, to mold and sharpen our character, to influence others for Him – He can draw something good from our pain in a myriad of ways…if we trust and follow Him.

 “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. But be courageous! I have conquered the world.”