If I Could Just Understand!

Not understanding what's happening, and why, is one of the hardest challenges we face in life. When something goes wrong, we immediately want to know, "Why?" If we can't figure it out, it can be hard to recover, and it can be hard to let go of pain and sadness.

The thing is, God doesn't always tell us why; in fact, he usually doesn't. His thinking is so different from ours. He says, "Trust in me with all your heart, and don't depend on your own understanding." (Pr. 3:5)

When we finally manage to relinquish control of our lives, when we relax into him with trust and faith, we can also give up the quest to understand everything. "Since the Lord is directing our steps, why try to understand everything that happens along the way?" (Pr. 20:24)

Becoming Strong

I had a favorite coffee cup that exploded in my hands one day when I poured hot coffee into it. Quite literally couldn't take the heat. It was beautiful. It was comfortable to hold. But it fell apart under the very conditions it had been created for. The problem was that it was created from a mold, not by hand. It failed along the seam. You and I are not patched together, and there are not a hundred or a thousand others just like us out there. Each one of us is created to be a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, and each of us is created for an individual purpose. God continues to make and shape us, and sometimes the process doesn't feel so great. But he's got something in mind for you! Do you believe it?

Honor Your Own Heart

When disaster strikes, the damage can be far-reaching. We look around and count one loss after another, until it feels as if we have lost everything. We have a tendency to tell each other "chin up" messages at these times. If you've ever been in the middle of complete devastation, you know what it feels like to be told some variation of, "It's probably for the best," or "It could be worse." It's interesting to me that God doesn't respond to us this way. In Joel 1:8, when swarms of locusts had destroyed every crop, God told his people to mourn as if someone had died. We are expected to grieve when bad things happen to us. We need to grieve. Grieving is painful, and when you're in the middle of it, it seems to go on forever. In order to stop grieving, though, we have to go ahead and admit how horrible things are, how hurt we are: grieve. Don't let anyone tell you anything different. Honor your own heart by admitting how much you've lost. Your pain matters to God, and it will matter to those who know how to be true friends.

When Things Go Terribly Wrong

When things go terribly wrong in our lives, we have some predictable questions we ask ourselves: "What did I ever do to deserve this?" "Why me?" "Why does this always happen to me?" and complaints: "This isn't fair!" "But I'm a good person!" I know there have been times when I thought to myself, "I'm throwing a raging tantrum in my head, and it's been a long time since I was two!"

What do you do when you find yourself in this situation?