If we endure to the end and run the race that is set before us with patience, our tears will turn to joy and our sorrow into singing!
As a pastor, I know there are times when no words in human speech can remove the pain from the brokenhearted. Many of those times occur when a tragedy has befallen someone for no apparent reason.
Where is God when it hurts? Sometimes it seems He is silent just when we need Him the most. Why do suffering and pain afflict good people? In my opinion, there are three basic reasons:
1. Poor choices. I once counseled a young man who came into my office angry with God that he was not “a whole” man because he had lost an arm in an auto accident. Pressed for details, he admitted he had been the drunken driver in a single car accident involving an encounter with a massive oak tree. I decided to administer a stiff dose of reality therapy.
“Your arm was cut off because you chose to drive while drunk,” I said, “God didn’t pour the whiskey down your throat or force you into the driver’s seat and down the highway… You made a series of poor choices, and the consequences are yours to bear.”
Then I went on to share with him how God could help him deal redemptively with those consequences.
People who are suffering are seldom willing to acknowledge their responsibility in the matter. I have begged young women in my church not to marry the young men they were seeing until their professions of faith manifested some fruit. I have implored businessmen not to join in contracts with questionable believers. But in mad pursuit of the chance of a lifetime, they plunge into a romantic or financial abyss that destroys their lives. I have heard them ask, “Why is God letting this happen to me?” The answer is, it isn’t God who’s making this happen. It’s the consequence of your poor choices.
Source: Being Happy in an Unhappy World
Foundations of Faith
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