Midweek Moment

I have been watching the news lately concerning all of the storms and flooding that have been wreaking havoc across our country.  The damage and destruction has been wide spread; often times completely destroying cities and towns.  To compound matters, the destruction is not only physical, but emotional and spiritual as well.  Questions about God and God's involvement in these types of situations often come to the surface in times such as these.  Questions such as, "why did God do this?" and "how could God allow this to happen?".  These questions are coming from people searching for some sense of order in a place of complete and utter chaos.  Their entire worlds have been turned upside down and they are struggling.

So does God allow these things happen?  Is this all just part of God's master plan?  I do not believe so.  I do not believe that God wills or causes these types of horrific events.  But what I do believe, is that God will come in and guide us through them.  To say to another person, that these events happened because God willed it, is in my mind, cruel.  It also does not align with the loving, graceful, merciful, and compassionate God I know and worship.  However, what God will do is come in and be with us.  God will guide us through the pain, direct us in our grief, and lift us up in our weakness.  God will sweep through the chaos and bring order.  

We serve a God that has promised to walk with us even through the valley of the shadow of death.  The Apostle Paul reminds us in Acts 17, "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ...in him we have all things." 

But in the midst of the pain, such as these storms and floods, we have feelings of anger and betrayal that we have to deal with.  When we face these situations, and all of us will at some point, I encourage you to turn to God. God will take over the suffering and joy will eventually return. We have opportunity after opportunity to turn from God in the face of injustice and unfairness. But when we do that the injustice and unfairness are still there. The only thing missing is the One that will help you through it. The One that will restore your hope. The hope will return through the Holy Spirit, through the love and compassion of another human being, and sometimes through some of the most unexpected places and people.  Turn to God, turn everything over to God, trust in God, and God will see you through.

Blessings upon you,