Years ago, when my daughter was a teenager, she shocked me one day by saying that she had questioned God's existence. It was my belief at that time, that you knew God existed, therefore you were never to question it. It worried me at the time because maybe she would turn away from those things she had learned in church and the bible. She had accepted Jesus as Lord when she was eight years old. How could she question that God existed? Because no matter where I had been or what I had been through in my life, I never once doubted his existence.
But then she and I were born on the different sides of the spiritual track if you will. I came from a family that while very much dysfunctional, we were raised in a Christian home where my father made sure that we went to church, and he modeled God's love for us in the best way he could,. But that was not so for my daughter.
Her father was an alcoholic that drank for the first 15 years of her life until God did get ahold of him and took that from him. In those years, because of the alcoholism, we had placed too much responsibility on her and now all of a sudden, his becoming sober was taking some of that away from her, and frankly, it no doubt messed with her mind. She was being allowed to be a teenager now. For the first time ever, our family was becoming involved in church activities and she wasn't so much alone anymore in that sense. She had been going off to church on Sunday mornings with my sister's family that would pick her up. in her younger years, and later she went with some friends. Now as a family we were going.
I do understand now why so many people today question God's existence. They look around at the world and see the devastation that goes on around them. The abuse of drugs and alcohol. The abuse that comes from parents that beat or starve their kids. Or sexual abuse that they put their kids through. All of which can and usually does have life long repercussions on them that would surely be a reason to call into question the existence of a God who says that he loves them. Why not. Maybe had I grown up with parents like that, I would have too.
I surely don't have all the answers. But I do know and believe that " we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which he has prepared in advance as our way of life." Ephesians 2:10. Because that is what the word of God tells us we are and for me, there is no questioning about it as I know there is for so many others.
It is sad that so many do. They see all the bad, but don't see the good around them. It doesn't take much to see some of the good. Even in winter, and looking out our front door the other morning after the snow had fallen all during the night, it was so beautiful. And one day in a few weeks, that winter will turn into birds singing, and flowers blooming. The cold will turn to warm weather and eventually the cooler temperatures of fall will bring on the bright colors of the season that will then become winter again.
Oh, I know sometimes there are some times in between that aren't so great. Freezing temperatures, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, heat that makes people stay in the air conditioning.
Not to mention the tragedies that are a part of everyday life. Abuse, murders, etc.
And it is those times that we just have to put up with as with the bad or the evil things we hear about every day. We do the best we can. We feed the hungry, we help the elderly, some even take children to church, whose parents don't go. We lobby Washington for stricter laws to put criminals behind bars. We do what we can. But, for some still asking it, "if you are truly there God, why don't you do something about all this? " And because it looks like he isn't doing what we want, our attitude becomes: God isn't real, because if he was, he would not let all this evil going on.
The thing we must realize is that God is the one calling the shots from his place in heaven. Not us. And those things on earth that are happening now, are only for a season. Seems like a very long one, doesn't it? And yet that is what Eccealastics says in Chapter 3:1-17. There is a time and a season for everything under heaven. And in that very verse in 17 says that God will judge the righteous and the wicked.
For many that time has already come and passed, as they pass from this life to another. For those that haven't passed, it is to come. In the meantime, the time to stop our questioning about God's existence is now and instead, just believe that he was and is. Because our time on earth is getting shorter and shorter. And the day will come, that we won't have to try to figure it out any longer.
Thankfully, my daughter did come to grips with her questions about God's existence. I had regrets about her early years and the way things were for her. But she told me years later, one of the memories she had that helped her as a younger person, was coming home after school every day and hearing my praise and worship music playing and me singing along with it. No matter what else might be going on, that was the thing that got her through some of the things she was going through. I had no knowledge of that during those years. It just proved to me that what we do and say, matters in the big picture of helping our kids know God exists. And I thank God for using that in me, to help her. Like Mary, the mother of Jesus treasured the things in her heart about her Son Jesus that was born, in Luke 2:19, so will I always treasure what my daughter had told me that day that gave me peace about how God truly does turn our sorrow into joy and the bad into good. And it is all for his own glory.
February 22, 2019 Promise: You have armed me with strength for the battle. you have humbled my adversaries before me.
Hi, Friends Thanks ever for your visit today. I hope you have a blessed day as always!
No comments:
Post a Comment