Why

Thank you all for your sweet comments and congratulations! I am so blessed to have so much support! I'm trying to enjoy my last few days as a "free woman" and am getting excited about what is to come!

Anyway, since Sunday, I have been meaning to post on the sermon from church this week dealing with the subject of Why- Why bad things happen (from Natural Disasters, to sickness, to all the little and big things that happen every day). I felt like this sermon really spoke to me, especially with everything that has happened this summer (being jobless/moving, Bayler passing away). It's so easy for us to blame God or question him as to how he allowed or made something bad happen. While the sermon didn't totally explain everything, I felt like the perspective really provided lots of answers to me.

Pastor Adam (Church of the Res., Leawood, KS) broke down everything that happens into three basic types of suffering:

1- Natural Disasters- With natural disasters, we learned that many of the disasters that happen (take earthquakes for example) take place because of something God designed about the Earth that also has a positive function. For example, an earthquake is caused by the shifting of plates. The shifting occurs when the magma cycles to and from the Earth's core, which cools the earth so it doesn't essentially blow up. God designed this process, but unfortunately, it also equals earthquakes at times. Also, what God does do in order to heal this suffering is to call his people in to help. Many of us have felt the call at times to go and help after such an event or to donate money, and that tug is one of the ways God heals after the suffering.

2- Bad things caused by Bad Decisions- this one is a hard one for us to handle sometimes, but it's pretty simple. God gave us free will. He gave it to everyone without discrimination. He could have decided to control everything we do, and that would have prevented many bad things and tragedies that happen as a result of people's bad decisions. God wanted us to be able to make our own decisions and to decide for ourselves to follow Him. Since we can decide, unfortunately, he can't stop people from doing bad things, even if he can nudge them not to and about what's right and wrong.

3-Sickness/Death- This one is tough and honestly is one that is still the toughest for me to get. Like the Earth, our bodies are amazing works of Christ. Think what a miracle it is when you get a scratch that your skin can just heal itself or if you're sick, your body can combat the disease. Pretty remarkable, right? That said, one of the risks of reproducing is that with the combination of dna, sometimes things can mess up and problems can present themselves. Pastor Adam descibes this as a risk of living. I know this one is a tough one, but I guess it does help some. Ultimately, I think he is saying that God is not causing these illnesses to happen, but he can use these circumstances for good.

The sermon was concluded by adding that it is alright to be mad at God and that God can take it! Adam did add one key thing, though:

When you turn away from God, the unfairness of the situation is all still there, you just turned your back on the one who can bring you HOPE and JOY.

I just thought this was an interesting perspective on a common question of faith. Although it doesn't provide all the answers (and there are still 2 more sermons in the series), it does help some. Hopefully it helped someone else, as I know it helped me.  If you're interested in listening to the sermon (much better first hand), please visit Church of the Resurrection.