FAITH FRIDAY :: Suffering and its causes.

I got lost in a bunch of YouTube videos and nearly forgot it was Friday and I need to post!!!  Who knows what GOD will bring to mind... I think about spiritual issues all the time, but putting them into words is hard.

I just watched a video about a young person who has made his life about living in a van.  I am always looking at housing-related videos and have had to live in a van before, so watching the details he was sharing about how he converted his van for homeless living was something that interested me.

There were only four videos on his channel, dating to six months ago, but the channel was created a little bit before that, maybe six months if I recall right.  I didn't take notes.  So he is still a question mark in truth-sharing.  

His van was very interesting.

I thought about how young he was, and how hard homeless living is... and how dangerous it can be.  I didn't have any choices in the matter... I think he did.  I told him I hope he stays safe.  And I told him he could help others with his life experience.  I hope he does both.

How do we know where our lives will lead us?  We don't.  The Bible say we make our plans but GOD is the true author of where we actually go... He leads us to our future in so many ways.

I also wrote a comment on one of the SEE LIFE 2021 videos Focus on the Family is currently sharing.  It was about unplanned pregnancies.  In my own thinking about how GOD works in our lives I believe there is some kind of connection between our freedom to choose the path of our lives, each day, and GOD's promise that He will make good out of the bad things that happen to us.  In my comment I shared how the Bible tells us GOD can control the womb, that we get pregnant because of His Plans sometimes... that every life has a purpose.  We may sin, but GOD can turn the damage that sin does in our lives into something that is good in our lives or the lives of others.

I have created little proverbs for myself as life took me into places I never planned to be... one of them was about the things we can control vs the things we can't.  Sometimes we have to deal with the results of others' choices.  There isn't anything we can do to change it.  

I often think of the Israelites being imprisoned by their enemies as a judgment for their sins... 400 years I believe it was one time.  I remember they neglected the Sabbath and eventually had to pay for it by a judgment.  It may have been the 400 years, but I can't recall right now.  It's a silly thought, but I also think about how they wouldn't have been honoring the Sabbath as prisoners of their enemies.  :-)

It is my interest in prison reform that brings these issues into my thoughts.

It is my own suffering that also makes me try to understand what comes from GOD and what comes from Man, or myself.

This all leads to the question :: What is my responsibility in the painful parts of my life?

I suppose I have seen a book about suffering by almost every pastor I have followed.  It is one of the hardest questions in Faith.  Everyone wants to blame GOD for every bad thing that exists.  I don't think it is GOD, but I also know that somethings have been beyond my own ability to control.  Somewhere in the middle of all the ideas we have about GOD and Man and sin and suffering is a principle, a Truth, but is it the same answer for each of us?  I don't think so.

We all are different.  We make our choices based on our particular lives.  GOD is involved in our lives in unique ways because our purposes, our reason for living, our place in the Body of Christ is different.  

All poor people may have things in common, but that doesn't mean GOD is orchestrating the pains of poverty the same in each poor person's life.

I think the sermons we hear are often messages that sound good, what we want to believe, but the reality of suffering and other grey areas of theology is that we don't really know what GOD is up to.

I think of Moses a lot... how his parents kept him alive, how they had to trust GOD to save him, how the Pharaoh's daughter was childless, how she found the child, how an older girl just happened to be there, how Moses was sent back to his mother until he was weaned, how Moses' family were able to watch their child grow without being able to be his family -- all to keep him alive.  GOD protected Moses in the only way He could at that time in history, preparing Moses for the plan GOD had for his life.

How GOD works in our lives is that big "mystery" -- we have to keep our eyes on GOD and trust that He will accomplish His Will through it all.

I keep reminding myself that "GOD is able..." and that He isn't my servant, I am his servant.  He is the Boss.  I am the "employee."  When life doesn't work out the way I want it to, I bring GOD into focus as the One in charge.

It helps, but still hurts.

I would hate for anything bad to happen to that young man in the van.  I hope he doesn't have to learn a lesson that hurts, one that can change his life forever, or take it away.  There are bad people on the streets.  Not everyone, but enough to hurt or kill innocent and trusting people.  I wish all the time there was some way to keep everyone from the pains of evil, but I don't have that power.

I have to trust that GOD will help those who truly need His help, who trust in Him, who put their faith in Him, and who cannot survive without Him.

In Christ,

Deborah Martin

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