Lamentations

Sometimes in life we find ourselves in very painful and nasty situations. We could be doing everything right, yet we experience nothing but wrong. And we try to keep pushing, to keep moving forward, to keep fighting. And the more we push, the more we try to move, the more we fight we're pulled, we're stuck, we're knocked down, hard.

But that's just the beginning. It's OK to be knocked down once, right? As long as we get back up and keep trying to find ways to just remain afloat. But life is like a lurking shark in deep blue open waters. It senses movement. It senses your trying. It senses your fighting. It senses. It assesses. Then before you know it, you feel an overwhelmingly burning sensation, then you the blue around you becomes red: life just bit a chunk of your leg off...

We all think we are good people, at least. We've all wondered: why is this happening to me? I'm a good person! And we're baffled by the discovery that it's not about that; no, not at all.

Then what is it all about?

For some reason, regardless of what the answer to that question is, it's never satisfying. So we complain.

Why is this happening to me?

What have I done to deserve this?

This is unfair!

Where the heck is God?

God is picking on me!

Does God even exist?

Man, (insert whatever) God! He can ---

I've had a few of those moments recently, and at times have not been too far from crossing that line, you know? I've asked Him some very intense questions, questions that one ask only when they're feeling a certain level of pain inside, feel me? The type of questions that makes others around you a bit uncomfortable because they'd never dare ask so boldly. Most of these questions star[ted] with a "Why is" and "What have I done".

I'm not the first person to have done that, you know, the whole asking God questions and such. If you haven't done it, read the entire book of JOB.

Here is a man going about his own business, doing everything right, and next thing you know, from a day to a night, he was thrown down to the pits of utter misery.

"There once was a man named JOB who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless - a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil." Job 1:1

In one day, this guy lost everything he ever possessed! That may not mean much to us today, delineating everything he had, but to place it in the proper context of how we measure today's wealth, I'll paint two scenarios:

A. Imagine the wealthiest person in the world, Bill Gates. In one day, he looses everything he owns... E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

OK, that doesn't mean anything

B. Imagine everything you have, I mean everything, from the most significant to the most insignificant. Imagine everything being taken away from you. Bank account: drained. Job: lost. Food: none. Family: gone. Friends: all you see are their backs. Car: gone. Clothes: one. Health: hanging by a thread. Nowhere to go. No place to hide.

OK, that should mean at least something

"I came naked from my mother's womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!" Job 1:21

Say what? It seems that JOB had it all figured out. I mean, he had to, because no one in their right mind would praise God going through what he was beginning to go through.

But later on in the story, JOB finds himself having to answer,

"Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorant words? Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them." Job 38:2,3

That was God's way of telling me to fall back, and stop 'questioning His wisdom with ignorant words'.

So then I begin asking Him to make me understand the purpose of what I was [am still] going through. He text me:

" 'My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,' says the Lord. 'And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.' " Isaiah 55:8,9

I can't argue with that, for as much as I may want to. So I took the next step and asked Him to make me understand His ways, or at least try to; and this is where I am right now, today. And this is where I'll leave it, for now:

The faithfulness of the Lord never ends!

His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin
afresh each morning. I say to myself,
"The Lord is my inheritance; therefore; I will hope in him!"

The Lord is good to those who depend on him,

to those who search for him.
So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.
And it is good for people to submit
at an early age to the yoke of his discipline:
Let them sit alone in silence
beneath the Lord's demands.
Let them lie face down in the dust,
for there may be hope at last.
Let them turn the other cheek to those
who strike them and accept the
insults of their enemies.

For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever.

Though he brings grief,

he also shows compassion because of

the greatness of his unfailing love.

For he does not enjoy hurting people

or causing them sorrow.

If people crushed underfoot
all the prisoners of the land, if they
deprive others of their rights in
defiance of the Most High, if they
twist justice in the courts--
doesn't the Lord see all these things?

Who can command things to happen
without the Lord's permission?
Does not the Most High send both calamity and good?

Then why should we, mere humans, complain
when we are punished for our sins?

Instead, let us test and examine our ways.
Let us turn back to the Lord.

Lamentations 3:22-40

Enjoy "Revelation Song" by Philips, Craig & Dean from their new album Fearless