I do not know you, yet here you are reading this article.
Why?
Is it because you have a few minutes to spare at breakfast, lunch, or breaktime?
Maybe you are reading to look for ways to troll my thoughts or insights. Perhaps, you have an axe to grind against religion and Christianity and feel protected behind the relative anonymity of the paper or internet.
But maybe, just maybe, you are looking for hope, answers, or comfort in the struggle that is life.
The fact is, when life gets especially difficult, many people turn to God out of desperation as no other source of help can be found this side of Heaven.
If help, in your estimation comes, God may get another try for you. Perhaps, even gratitude.
But what happens to the countless souls that God apparently chooses not to answer their pleas for help?
Often, the response is anger. A person shakes their fist at God, blames him for his indifference, and wishes to do as much harm to the faithful adherents as possible by mocking and bullying their continuing steadfastness.
While it is true that every person will face death, it seems especially unfair to have a loved one die young, contract cancer, or lose their mental faculties to dementia and related diseases.
In fact, a very long list of maladies has the potential to get us.
It is the felt injustice that makes us wonder at God’s plan.
I am not going to trivialize your experience by giving vacuous words of comfort. To do so would be to insult the depth of your grief or circumstance.
What I believe to be true, though, is this; “there is no discharge in our war”.
What do I mean?
No one is granted a release from the service that is life. To live is to accept the inevitability of mortal passing. It may be something we did not sign up for, yet we enjoy the benefits, nonetheless.
However, to celebrate the great things of living is a bargain we commit to.
How can I appreciate the forest without knowing that wildfires may ravage my community?
How can I appreciate the sea without knowing the power of ominous tides?
How can I welcome and love a new son or daughter without knowing the pain that awaits them?
To live, then, is to see both the good and the evil and accept these.
Perhaps, you are in “the valley of the shadow of death” as I write.
Try to remember, it is only a shadow. No one has ever been hurt by shadows. There is nothing to fear.
The promise to those who trust, is that God is with you.
Rather than being gripped by loss and anger, consider looking at life as a continuum that pushes us to the next horizon.
Then, your anguish at loss is temporal and your perspective in hope eternal.
Kent Simmons is the pastor of Canyon Community Church in Kingman, AZ.
Perspective
