I thought this would be appropriate with a major hurricane bearing down on the east coast as I write this. I have heard on the radio people calling to pray for God to change the direction of the storm and what a miracle it would be if the storm just turned and went out to sea. I don’t think it’s wrong to pray for that and in fact God tells us to ask for things we need or want, but it’s also important to remember that God is in control no matter what happens. A lot of times we don’t understand why things happen the way they do, even if we lose all we have like those that lost everything in the tornadoes last year. God allows things to happen for reasons we cannot even begin to imagine and in a way I take comfort in that. What if we could figure out what God was doing? What if I could see his reasons for helping or not helping in the bigger picture? How big would God be if ANYONE could figure him out?
Is God absent when a house catches fire because of some careless accident and a child dies because of it? Is God absent when a drunk driver crosses the centerline and kills a family? Is God absent when a career is ended by some injury or a job is lost due to the economy? Are we sure he knows what he’s doing when a loved one is diagnosed with cancer, MS, brain tumors… Does he see what’s going on and say “there’s nothing I can do”, or is God sovereign . God is either in control or he’s not. I personally don’t take any comfort in times like these when someone says God didn’t will this to happen or worse yet, that there is no God. What we don’t see is how everything fits. What if the child that dies in a house fire is spared a lifelong debilitating illness? What if survivors of these tragedies learn to see God’s love in a way that could not have happened had the situation been different? What if…?
I believe we have a God that knows how every human life “fits” with each other and he has a plan, and his plan could not be more perfect. We just need to trust that he knows what he’s doing and that he has our best interest in mind. I know it’s easy to say when things are going our way, but what happens when everything we know is shaken by something we can’t control.
The East coast had a rumbling this week that usually only those of us on the West coast get to experience. It’s scary when we feel or even see the ground shifting beneath our feet…the very same ground that we thought was rock solid and immovable. All we can do is hang on and ride it out. There’s nothing we or anyone else can do to make it stop. It happens; and as long as our life belongs to Jesus we know we’re safe for eternity.
The question is what are we going to do once the storm passes?
