Why does God allow people to go through intense times of darkness and suffering? What is He doing when he seems absent and unconcerned?
Where Is God When Life Feels Hopeless?
Tag: death
Everything Good Now Broken
Because God is not a control freak, and because he longs for mutual desire and gives us the freedom to choose, and because we chose to be gods ourselves, we’re living in a world broken from such a perfect relationship with our creator.
Reckless
What happened that causes us to wrestle with lust and pornography? Why is it that we experience pain and sometimes hurt others, ourselves? Because we have chosen to listen to another person’s voice instead of God’s.
But instead of giving us what we deserve (death), God has taken personal responsibility for restoring us back to His original design. He’s done something reckless, in our human way of looking at it. Without it, we have no hope.
A Theology of Death
God has a story for us through death, I’m convinced. In my own wrestling and journeying I’ve begun studying, for myself, to find what God is saying. I’d like to share briefly what I am learning about God and death.
Still, My Soul Be Still
We are in the middle of moving from Chiang Mai to Los Angeles via New York City. We landed at JFK on June 1st, and hit the westward road June 17. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting with friends and family and seeing the great landscapes of the United States.
Unfortunately, while visiting my grandparents in northern Illinois, we got word that Teresa’s cousin, Sheldon Bacher, was killed in a car accident. We had just seen him a couple days before! Sudden, tragic deaths like this jerk the heart so deeply–it’s numbing. Words can’t sympathize… this isn’t how life is supposed to be! We turned around and headed for South Carolina to grieve with the family and share in their loss. As I drove, today, a song that became meaningful to me over the time of my Mom’s death kept running through my mind, so I thought I’d share it here.
“God, you are our God! And we will trust in You and not be shaken.”
Nonconformity: Does It Even Matter?
Because of grace, there are no excuses for sinful living. Only, God is for us. Not against us. Too often we live the Christian life expecting ourselves to be more perfect then even God expects us to be. As if holiness is something we are to accomplish before we have peace with Him. But that matter was taken care of by Christ on the Cross. We have peace, period. We can now live in relationship with God, and it is from that relationship we find the ability to live as He designed, to obey Him from the heart instead of obligation as they did under the Old Testament Law.
We still live in a fallen world, though, bound by a fallen nature. Living as He designed goes contrary to our nature. We have been grafted in—we’re not a part of the trunk that gave us root. It feels more natural to live without Him.
It is within this context that Paul is writing in Roman’s twelve.
Why Jesus
We hear about God’s son all our lives and, yes, we can quote verses about who He is and why He came to earth and died and rose again, but it’s easy for the story to become rote and soon the deep, earth shaking truths glide over our heads while our hearts wrestle with the faith conflicts we experience every day while living on this earth.
Too many people are doing okay on the outside, but feel lost when they’re hearts ask scary questions. Questions such as, “Why Jesus?” “Who is God, really?” “Am I truly saved?” and “Have I ever actually known God?” aren’t that acceptable in Christian culture. We’re supposed to have that all figured out. Yet, the more I hear people’s stories, the more I realize many of us—those that look like good Christians—are wrestling with these very issues.
This Easter season I needed to take a look and remember who Christ is, what He did for us, how He did that, and how we can experience Him personally.
Does God Really Work All Things Together for Good?
Three years ago this morning I woke up an excited groom-to-be. Dad and I were going to have breakfast together and have a much needed father-son talk, if you know what I mean.
Our family was staying in the basement of some friends in Canon City, Colorado, where my fiancée lived and our wedding was going to be held. I went out to the living room that morning to have personal devotions. I was tired and doing my best to be “spiritual.”
Mom woke up around the same time and came out to the living room, as well. After a few minutes, she broke the silence and asked how Teresa and I were doing. I remember feeling slightly annoyed—”I’m meeting with God, can’t you see?”
