Why Must This Be?

 

   I had an interesting conversation with a gentleman today.  He was telling me about a past experience with one of his children; at the time, the doctors thought the child had a very serious condition with a poor prognosis.  He told me he went home and cried for hours.  He said he had asked God why this was happening to him.  He didn’t smoke or drink, and he was always kind to people.  Why was this happening to him?

  I think that is a very natural response to a stressful life event.  Shouldn’t bad things only happen to bad people?  The answer, of course, is no.  Unfortunately, agonizing events can happen to anyone for so many different reasons. And even though we know God is all-loving, most of us, at one time or another, have blamed God when things went wrong. 

  Pain, like anger, can be overwhelming and difficult to experience alone. But that may be the point we often overlook. We are not alone. God is very present in our most difficult moments. Not because He is testing or punishing us but rather because He loves us so dearly and wants to help us. The difficult decision we need to make is: Can we trust God instead of blaming Him?

  Perhaps if we turned to God each day with the small annoyances of the day, we could develop a holy habit of relying upon God. Then, when we find ourselves faced with really difficult situations, we will give Him our pain and trust God to navigate the storm for us.  We may find ourselves on an unknown shore, but we will never be alone.

  Fortunately, the gentleman I spoke with today received a blessing instead of a tragedy. Let us pray this week for those who, through no fault of their own, have found themselves on an unexpected shore.  Let us pray they trust God who is all-loving, all-caring, and always at our side.

-Susan