God's Place in Our Crazy World

                                                     Sometimes it seems like God is on vacation.

 How could He possibly be around when ISIS is killing Christians every day, when small children are starving in Africa, when our country has a debt on $19 trillion, when cancer inflicts so many of our loved ones, when politicians try to take away our rights, when kids are bullied not just at school, but also in the privacy of their rooms on their screens, when parents are struggling to keep their family off the street, when you can't enter a big city without the threat of a bomb going off. Where is God in all of this? Does He really care about us?

 How could He let this happen?

Even the most grounded Christian has thoughts like these. We all have doubts why we trust a Savior we can't see or hear or feel. People accuse us of being crazed lunatics who are so dependent on something that we create an imaginary King to fill the void. It shakes your faith when you hear of another famous pastor messing up again, doesn't it. Where's God's place in our crazy world?

It is so easy to blame God for the bad stuff the happens in the world, when those bad things are a result of our negative actions or someone else's mistakes. God can do anything He wants because He is almighty. But I have found that so many times that God lets bad things happen to us, that will teach us a lesson we will need later on in life or that we can use that experience to help someone else. God's pretty amazing like that.

The other thing is that we need to accept a couple of things 1) we each have a purpose in life and when that purpose is finished, we die. 2) everyone dies. Both of the these truths are understandably hard to hear. God has a plan for everyone's life, and sometimes that plan leads to pain and suffering. Don't ask me to fully explain the ways of the Lord, because He has clearly said that His way are not our way and His thoughts are not our thoughts.

Although it sounds like a stereotypical answer it holds so much truth: God has a plan for you and He's asking you to trust even when it is hard.