So this post may have a bit of a different vibe from the rest of this blog. God has been stirring my heart.
Last Friday morning my phone rang pretty early. I looked at my phone to see a really good friend who I had been playing phone tag with for the last three weeks was calling, even though it was early I was really stoked that we had finally caught each other. When I answered the phone our conversation wasn't as great as I had expected it to be. Here is my attempt at recalling exactly how the start of it went.
Me: Hey! We finally caught each other!
Friend: Hey, yeah we did, its not exactly under good circumstances though.
Me: Oh? Whats going on?
Friend: My dad passed away last night
I was shocked. Her dad was an awesome guy and he was the picture of what healthy at his age should look like. He hadn't died of any kind of disease or anything but he had died from hitting his head during a fall. He left behind a wife, two grown kids, and a daughter who is about nine years old now. None of it made sense.
The whole situation got me thinking about suffering and why on earth things like that happen. This is the result of my attempts at working things out. Some are conclusions and some are just crazy truths that God has spoken to me as a result of this situation.
Thought #1: Life on earth is short.
Its strange to think about this but the average American lives about 78 years. Some people die older, some people die younger. When I lived in the massive (if by massive you mean extremely small) town known as Jacksonville Texas, one of the things that the place was known for was being home to the oldest woman on earth who at the time was 116 years old (she died last year).
With that understanding and if we keep on carrying on at this rate then its safe to say that most likely in 130 years not a single person who is living on the earth today will be alive anymore. The fact is that if you're reading this on the day that it was written March 19, 2012 then exactly 130 years from now you'll have been gone for a while and won't be living here on earth.
There is no cure for death. We're all going to die someday. Some of us more soon than others.
Thought #2: You can't take anything with you.
Someday I plan on having money, a car, a house, and even a lazyboy recliner of my own. I'm pretty stoked to have these things but the fact is after my family fights over who gets what, the stuff I owned during this life will not matter too much at all to very many people and will not matter at all to me. I'll be dead.
Thought #3: Sometimes life just isn't fair.
Its not fair that my friend won't be able to have her dad there for a lot of things in her life, its not fair that her little sister only got to have her father in her life for 9 years, its not fair that her mother will have to become a single parent. Its not fair that people have to do life without their parents, have to go to bed hungry, or endure abuse. Its just the nature of a fallen world.
This whole blog post probably has looked like nothing but doom and gloom, and may have left some of you feeling completely depressed, God however showed me some beautiful truths in response to the thoughts that I had.
Truth #1: Thank God life on earth is short.
God totally agrees with me that life is short, look at what he says about our lives through His word in James 4:14b he says "You are a mist that appears for a little time and then is vanishes".
To people who are nonbelievers this is a sad and extremely scary fact. To me though, it is nothing short of the most beautiful thing on earth.
If you look around you it doesn't take much to show you that we live in and have always lived in a fallen sinful world. As children we are born with original sin destining us to die and have to leave this earth, the sin that we have SHOULD destroy us eternally, however God sent His perfect son to die for us and bear the burden for our sins. Because of this, while we will leave this earth someday, for those of us who are in Christ Jesus we are guaranteed something better than this fallen sinful place. We're going to be gone someday but the fact is that Jesus gave us the opportunity to live forever with Him in paradise.
In John 14 Jesus said "In my father's house there are many rooms, if it were not true I would not have told you so, I go there to prepare a place for you" Jesus has a place in heaven picked out and prepared specifically for you, someday when you die you'll get to go there. Thank God life is short because if you believe in Jesus then you understand that you won't have to endure this fallen terrible world forever and some day you'll get to go and be with Jesus in heaven.
If you do not believe in Jesus then there is good news for you too in that all you have to do is believe and you will be afforded an opportunity to be there too. Jesus wants a relationship with you and desires to see you come to Him and join Him in heaven some day. In John 14:6 Jesus says "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me" If you put your faith and trust in Jesus and allow Him to be the Lord of your life, you too will be allowed to experience heaven, there is not another thing you have to do to get in. None of your past mistakes or present shortcomings will matter anymore. All you have to do is believe and trust.
Truth #2: What you own means nothing, but what you do means a lot.
Because we live in this fallen world for such a short amount of time there is stuff that we need to do with some urgency. There are people all over the world who are doing life right now with no knowledge of Jesus or who reject Him. These people's future doesn't look good.
One of the last commands Jesus gave us was to go and make disciples of ALL nations. That means that we cannot be quiet about what Jesus did for us. If we do not share our faith and show the gospel to these people then the fact is that they will some day face an eternity in Hell.
In 130 years the stuff you have will mean absolutely nothing, the legacy of believers and faithful people you leave behind you will mean a whole lot. Parents, you have to share the gospel with your children and show them the way to live a godly lifestyle. Employees, you have to share the gospel in the workplace, share it with your coworkers, customers, and your boss, we were given a mission and this is bigger than any job you will ever have. Students, you have to share the gospel with your friends, share the gospel with your enemies, share the gospel with your teammates, even your teachers, show these people that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, show them that there is hope for a better eternity than this sucky sinful world.
The people you influence for Jesus will thank you in eternity, even if it makes things a little awkward here on earth.
Truth #3 You can't explain suffering. Thank God life is unfair.
Have you ever noticed that when someone dies that we people always say crap (excuse my french) like "well God wanted another angel in heaven so he plucked your daddy up" while that may be a cute thing to say and they may mean well its nothing more than complete and total garbage.
In the bible when Job lost everything he cried out to God and God's response was something to the extent of "did you create the earth? Did you create the heavens? Did you create living things? You can't understand fully what I've done and who are you to question me?" that s a very paraphrased version of what God lovingly said to Job. However in Romans Paul wrote in all things God works for the good of those who love him. Sometimes the good might be that the person who died is in heaven but most of the time we can't see what God is doing behind the scenes. We can't tell what will happen in five minutes let alone 47 years from now. God does not intend to see His children sad or grieving but when we do grieve He grieves with us. God made people out of DIRT the same God who made us out of something as nasty as dirt can make something beautiful out of your tragedy.
Thank God life is unfair, I deserve nothing more than to burn in hell for eternity. Because of God's great love for us and His great mercy though, I will get to go on and live forever with him, even if I suffer terribly in the future.
Truth #4: Even in the face of storms God is still good.
In the bible God didn't promise that storms (suffering) would never happen in our life, He did however, guarantee that if we chained ourselves to Him in the hard times that our house would still stand, in this life and in eternity.
God is as close to you in hard times as you allow Him to be, when things don't make sense, seem scary, or are just plain heart breaking look to Him, He is our strength and our portion forever.
Everything in your life can and will ultimately fail you, except for God, even in the deepest possible pain in our lives He is still sufficient, He is all we need.
The bottom line is that I just can't explain earthly suffering, all I know is that God's grace points us to a future with no suffering where we will do nothing but live in His presence. Bring on whatever needs to come my way, my God is sufficient.
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