I am sure every parent knows the drill. If you have ever taken your children to the swimming pool for a day of fun in the sun, you understand what it is to be misunderstood and under appreciated. I don't mean your kids don't love the fact that you took them to the pool, but at some point you have to tell them "It's time to get out of the pool." This is rarely very well received.
Picture it with me. The day started fine and fun. As the afternoon has moved on you have seen the growing clouds in the distance. You have felt a few small drops of rain and the breeze growing ever so slightly stiffer and then it happens. You see the distant flashes of lightning. The time has come. You say to the kids "It's time to get out if the water, dry off, and get in the car."
The children come to the edge of the pool with a great deal of disappointment because fun time has drawn to an end. In their little minds it seems so arbitrary, you are the reason fun has stopped. If they were upset at the edge of the pool wait until they get out and feel that "ever so slight" stiff breeze. Now they are freezing cold and shivering and very unhappy. They had been playing hard which had distracted them from the knowing hunger in their stomachs and now their misery only draws attention to the fact that they need immediate nourishment. They are not having fun, they are cold, they are hungry, they are tired and you did this to them. You can try to help them understand the reasoning behind your decision, but they are way past making any sense of it. It's time for the noisy ride home.
In the Bible we read the words of a "now much wiser" king Nebuchadnezzar in Dan 4:34-35 "At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; (35) all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?""
The rest of the Bible agrees with Nebuchadnezzar that God is providentially in control of all things. The Bible is not unclear on this doctrine, but I think the implications of this truth make it hard for us to want to believe. One of those difficulties is the suffering that comes into our lives. It is hard for us to imagine that God could stop the hardship if he wanted to but he allows it to happen. This feels arbitrary. It feels unloving. And yet the Scriptures remind us Rom 8:28 "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Not everything that happens to us is good, but God is working all these things for good. Even what other men "mean for evil" God "intends for good."
Let me encourage you to recognize that God is good and loves you. He is wise. He is powerful. He may take you intentionally through a season of life that feels like the kids getting out of the pool. You get hungry, cold, tired, and your not having fun any more. Trust God. Trust him whose eyes are on the distant lightning that he is taking you through this season for your good. He is accomplishing something! Trust that he is not arbitrary or unloving or powerless. He is blessing you in the midst of hard things. If you can trust God through suffering you may say with Job in Job 42:5 "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you..."
Picture it with me. The day started fine and fun. As the afternoon has moved on you have seen the growing clouds in the distance. You have felt a few small drops of rain and the breeze growing ever so slightly stiffer and then it happens. You see the distant flashes of lightning. The time has come. You say to the kids "It's time to get out if the water, dry off, and get in the car."
The children come to the edge of the pool with a great deal of disappointment because fun time has drawn to an end. In their little minds it seems so arbitrary, you are the reason fun has stopped. If they were upset at the edge of the pool wait until they get out and feel that "ever so slight" stiff breeze. Now they are freezing cold and shivering and very unhappy. They had been playing hard which had distracted them from the knowing hunger in their stomachs and now their misery only draws attention to the fact that they need immediate nourishment. They are not having fun, they are cold, they are hungry, they are tired and you did this to them. You can try to help them understand the reasoning behind your decision, but they are way past making any sense of it. It's time for the noisy ride home.
In the Bible we read the words of a "now much wiser" king Nebuchadnezzar in Dan 4:34-35 "At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; (35) all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?""
The rest of the Bible agrees with Nebuchadnezzar that God is providentially in control of all things. The Bible is not unclear on this doctrine, but I think the implications of this truth make it hard for us to want to believe. One of those difficulties is the suffering that comes into our lives. It is hard for us to imagine that God could stop the hardship if he wanted to but he allows it to happen. This feels arbitrary. It feels unloving. And yet the Scriptures remind us Rom 8:28 "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Not everything that happens to us is good, but God is working all these things for good. Even what other men "mean for evil" God "intends for good."
Let me encourage you to recognize that God is good and loves you. He is wise. He is powerful. He may take you intentionally through a season of life that feels like the kids getting out of the pool. You get hungry, cold, tired, and your not having fun any more. Trust God. Trust him whose eyes are on the distant lightning that he is taking you through this season for your good. He is accomplishing something! Trust that he is not arbitrary or unloving or powerless. He is blessing you in the midst of hard things. If you can trust God through suffering you may say with Job in Job 42:5 "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you..."
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