Olive Tree

Thursday, April 18, 2013

WHY, Part 2

In the aftermath of the Boston bombing....

I recognize that there are no pat answers for the WHY? of human suffering.  Yet, here is a different approach than the one mentioned yesterday.

W Wrestle with the issue, don't wallow in it.  Turn to scripture; ask questions; the Psalmist did.  "Why are you cast down, O my soul? and why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance." (Psalm 42:5)

H - Hope in God; don't be hopeless.  "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." (Jer. 29:11)  Some translations say, "...to give you a hope and a future." 

Y - Yield to Christ..  Don't turn to yourself for the answers.  Think of his promised end - the Holy City the new Jerusalem.   "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Rev. 21:4)

Joni Earekson Tada, Bethany Hamilton, and Robert Rogers are examples of people who have taken their extreme suffering and turned to God within it.  Robert Rogers is speaking next week, April 24th, in Drexel Hill, PA.

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