It's puzzling picture

It's comforting to know that even the relatives of Jesus had questions and doubts.

In the perfect world, doubt and faith would not hold hands.  But we don't live in the perfect world.  And many days our doubts suffocate our faith.  We need fresh hope to cling to.

So did John, the Baptist.  I find great comfort that even he, who had walked with the Messiah, seen the outreach of Jesus' ministry, even witnessed Him heal the sick and blind, had questions about Jesus.  From his view behind bars, it was a puzzling situation.  

He doubted Jesus. He asked Him are you the "One" while he was in prison.

That comforts me in some strange way.  When he asked this question and sent it to Jesus, he was behind bars.  From his perspective, I wonder if he just needed a little reassurance that Jesus hadn't forgotten him.  

We all have doubts that we deal with.  On some days it's some days it's hard to quiet the questions.  

I learned to leverage doubt to the point of ignoring them and keep them at arms length.  Doubt only lulls my faith into a case of the Monday blues.  And my heart sinks a little to think that God would disappoint.

Doubt contradicts my faith, and I have to guard my heart and mind from anything choking my faith.

God can't disappoint us because it contradicts His character of faith, hope and love. 

People disappoint, but God never will. 

There are certainly situations we face that throw some hard hitting hurts our way.  I try to look at the bright side of those situations.  But it is hard when it's cancer and it side effects.  We have traveled through that storm a couple of times, and we have lived to tell about it.  God is faithful to never leave us in our storms alone.

I look for God in the middle of chronic pain.  He's there holding our hands on the hard days and provides rest and medicine that helps.  God is faithful to never leave us in our pain parties either.

I look for God in the sad and happy times of celebrating life moments when someone meets Jesus before us.  Their bodies have been restored to wholeness now.  That's certainly praiseworthy.

It's hard to see God's plan in tough life-altering situations from the lens of death, cancer and pain.  But there are reasons, and many times there is a bigger purpose than what is seen from a hurting perspective.

I am so thankful that God's sovereignty doesn't depend on my life circumstances because if there is anyone who DOES know what He is doing...it's God.

He has proven that I can trust Him with His faithfulness through ALL my days.  I just love Him for who He is and that He sticks with me when the going gets tough.

I couldn't do life on my own and so glad God planned that in advance.  

“Our faith is in God and not the outcome we want.”-Craig Groeschel

It is well with my soul.  

How has God used pain for your benefit?

When Bad Things Happen To Good People

I know the answer that you are looking for ...

But first let me say bad things happen to bad people too.  Basically bad things happen in life.  And let's be honest there is really only one reason.  Because we live in a world filled with sin.  

So when someone asks "Why do bad things happen to good people, I try to turn that frown around to say "Why wouldn't bad things happen to good people?"

In God's word, He promises to never leave us.  He will not forsake us.  

He didn't promise smooth sailing, only a safe landing.   

So don't focus on the bad, let's focus on the good.  

I can remember the most intense days of my married life, when there was all kinds of bad happening in our life.  Terry, my husband, just survived cancer surgery and 11 months of chemotherapy.  We had a our re-check on the chemotherapy progress and it was not a good report.  In fact, they said that another surgery was needed and because the cancer struck again.  Our hearts sank.  To top it all off, after surgery number two, it was recommended that take a double in-take of chemo and radiation therapy.  For 33 days.  

So we began a new routine that quickly turned into a habit.  We sent the kids to grandmas house, who shuffled them to school.  Next we were in the car driving for an hour for a 15 minute treatment then drove an hour back so that I could be at work at a full-time job by 10 am.  We did that day after day.  

I don't remember driving.  

Except for one day, it was raining so hard.  And it was raining in my soul, and I cried literal buckets of tears thinking I couldn't do it one more mile.  And then God was there and held our hands, I was reminded about how awesome God was.  And I made it through that day and the next and then the next.

It was intense therapy for sure during those 33 days.  And there have been many tear-filled days since.  Yes cancer, chemotherapy, and radiation are bad things.  For some of you, it pales in comparison to what you are going through right now.....  

But know this...

In those intense 33 bad days and following, we have experienced God.  In those 33 days He revealed Himself as our Healer, our driver, our source of strength, our companion, our interpreter when all I could do is cry, and so many more words that I can't even describe right now.

Bad junk happens to us, but there is something good in every bad thing that happens.  Now you may never see the good that comes from a bad thing.  And you may see lots of good things that happen from bad things.  But in those bad times...

God is still God, God is still good, and God is still for us.

Knowing that about God is all the explaining of bad-things-happening-to-good-people that I need. 

Lamentations 3:22-24 "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." 

Don't forget, we're just passing through.  I for one want to experience as much of God's faithfulness and wonderfulness that I can possibly can. Whether that be good things or bad.  It's all good if I believe that God is in my tomorrows.  I do know the next 33 days will be filled with the wonder of God.  

God will be faithful and Heaven's waiting. 

P.S.   Ben Rodgers does this answer your question?  Bottom line...We are all bad people, and bad things happen.  God is the only Good I have found in this life.

Five Minute Friday - Normal

What is normal?  What does normal mean to you?  And why am I even asking this question?  I ponder.  Did you know that on this blogger template there is a normal font and a normal size of print?  Normal is used a lot in our language.  


Normal means the same, common, usual, average, customary, habitual, ordinary, regular, run-of-the-mill, and typical.  Normal is what we crave when things go awry.  Normal invades our daily habits.  Normal equates our activities to an apathetic level.


A normal day brings sameness and regularity.  Normal brings consistent patterns of behavior that can run you into a rut.  We can aimlessly go through a normal life.  We tend to caught up in our own little worlds, traveling in our own little circles, then all of a sudden...out of nowhere...life happens in the middle of our normal.


We get slapped with cancer, money issues, surgery, hate, the Spirit, kindness, injury, death, loss of job, pride, etc.  The list of bad things can go on and on.  So could the list of good things.  My point is when there is a shift in either direction, we want our lives to return to the same, the normal.    


After thinking about this, what I crave is something completely atypical.  That's the "normal" that I want.  I have convinced that I will always have the not-normal.  That means I will have problems but it also means that I will have many opportunities for God to work in and through my life.

Normal means that I am just drifting through this life unchanged.

Normal controls so that we stay within the limitations of our own strength.  We choose life events so that things will go according to our wills.  We defy God's directions to experience Him.  Normal is safe.     


With my recent inconsistency in normal, I have realized that I don't really want what I thought was normal.  I don't want calm waters, I don't need God there.  But in the not-normal, it forces me to be dependent on God, which is where I want to be.  I can be consistent in God's path to peace, which requires my total dependence on His strength.  

I am good with being a not-normal-changed-follower of Christ.  

Are you content with your normal?

Paging Dr. House

Our garage is still broken from a weird random severe thunderstorm that occurred about a year ago.  You may wonder why it hasn't been fixed yet?  I honestly don't have a good answer to that question.  There have been a lot of discussions and chins rubbed regarding it.  The fix seem complicated.

When I look at the rubble in my garage I get worn out.  It doesn't motivate me to action.  I'm also amazed that my clean house disintegrates so quickly in a couple of days time.  I get so tired of fixing that. 


There are other things that remind me that I can't fix anything, like my husband who has survived cancer but still lives with chronic pain.  Those whom I love that still need Jesus in their life, or the family that has been hit with leukemia.  And then there is  a couple whose marriage was broken by an extra-marital affair.  Right now I have 3 lawn mowers at my house that need repaired.  There are some days I don't know where the fixing should start.  I think about all the unfix-able things and I get overwhelmed.  This week, one dark morning as I was leaving for work, and God encouraged me with this, "Not everything needs fixed, not everything will be fixed, and remember you are not the fixer." 


What I think needs a handyman's touch is not what really needs fixing right now.  Where I think a broom could quickly sweep away some dirt may not be my bigger need.  I will always see the obvious piles or messes and I will never enjoy being squeezed by my whatever-happens-circumstances.    


I believe God puts us in the middle of the life's rubble so that He can show us that He is our only Fix.  He purposely plunks us in the middle these-finely organized-messes, so that His glory can be revealed in the rescue.  A friend was sharing part of his recent trip to Uganda.  He told me a story that had me in tears as it melted my heart.  A baby had been left for dead.  The situation was grim, but in the dark of night the baby was found barely alive and God saved the little life with the a simple bark of a dog.  Only He could have provided a way out of the dire situation.  


I have a missionary friend that entered the hospital with a busted appendix, and has run the gambit of medical issues, so many, that he could have been on lasts week's episode of House.  And as we are still begging God for healing, I see this too as an opportunity for God's glory to be revealed.  God likes to work when nothing else will and most times we have to get to the end of ourselves before He swoops in to fix.  Sometimes, though, things are beyond repair before He provides His remedy.


The bottom line for me is this...in my messes....He is teaching me to live above my circumstances.  This is a lesson that Paul seemed to have down quite nicely.  Philippians records over and over that our response to "whatever happens" is that we must rejoice.  Humanly that's hard to do when your family has been slapped with crisis.  


God has a remedy for you, for your messes, for your piles of dirt you want to sweep under the rug, for your brokenness, for your spiritual chaos that rages within.  God can still fix your problems...God can.  He is the Master who deals with disasters that hit us in our houses, in hospitals and in those hostile marital situations.  He wants to teach us more than the truth that He can fix.  He wants us to fix our eyes on Him....trust....and let Him be God in the fixing.  

Whatever happens....please fix us God.
Whatever happens...God teach us to rejoice!