“…We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God…” (Acts 14:22)
I received a letter recently from a reader in Illinois that troubled me.
Eighteen years ago, within just a few days of her own salvation, she ran over and killed a two-year-old boy while she was backing out of her driveway.
She lamented that she could not find any parallel in the Bible to comfort her.
“Nowhere could I find how to live with myself, or face the parents of that little boy who died…Christ never accidentally took the life of another, and yet everyone says that Christ came and lived among us, experiencing everything about life, facing the same issues and the same temptations. Where are the words of comfort for this? Where is the example to show me how to deal with this and survive…Where are the answers?
I don’t know when I have prayed more about anything. It’s been more than a month since I got her letter and only recently has God given me the liberty to respond.
I understand her feelings of confusion and anger. I unexpectedly lost my mother at the age of seven and often wondered how God could take a mother away from a child, especially one who was just beginning to learn how to express love in ways that can only be taught by a mother.
Simple expressions of love are not spontaneous for me because of the scars from that childhood experience. Something just seems to be standing in the way. It’s only recently that I have finally realized how to break the yoke of bondage that I’ve been wearing for almost 40 years.
We cannot continue to hold God responsible when things go awry in our lives. Everything that happens in the world is not God’s will. It took Solomon a lifetime to spin wisdom out of his own folly. He once wrote, “I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned, but time and chance happen to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11)
Jesus’ mother didn’t die when he was a child, but that doesn’t mean that God’s Word cannot speak to my heart about my own mother’s death. You see God has revealed to me that He’s not standing over in the corner of the room watching as one trial after another comes my way. He’s always been close enough to hold my hand and walk through it with me. But I’ve got to make the first move. That’s why God, in the Person of Jesus Christ said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 12:28-30)
When suffering comes our way, we focus too much on why it happened. Instead, we should ask ourselves what do I do now and who is there to help me do it. Only then can we begin to look for God for help and stop holding Him responsible for all the unfair things that happen to us in this world. The psalmist reminds us, “…I lift my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalms 121:1-2)
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