faith is more than a word spoken
A gunman kills more than 30 students in a shooting rampage on a college campus in Virginia. Young intelligent students trying to prepare for their future were denied life beyond April 16, 2007.
Why ? … What possible good could come from this ? God help me to understand your reasoning behind this tragedy. In my small and limited mind it makes absolutly no sense. None.
There was a week in Jerusalem when an innocent man with excellent character and sweetness experienced acts of injustice. He endured ruthless torture and a humilating slow death for crimes He did not commit. Many of His relatives and friends could see no sense in this slaughter. He was young and intelligent and trying to prepare us for our future, yet He seemingly was denied an earthly life beyond that day.
How is our faith in God when life is treating us well ? How is that same faith when life makes absolutly no sense and is full of “whys” ?
Regardless of our circumstances, there is a goodness to God that cannot be argued. He has a plan that is outside of my ability to comprehend.
Through the death of Jesus on that cross He brought us the goodness of salvation. Even through the grief at Virginia Tech,
I trust in His plan for additional goodness.
Faith is more than a spoken word … when tested, it is an action that reflects the goodness Christ and the one that sent Him.
“You are good, and what you do is good …” Psalm 119:68
“It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.” Psalm 119:71
My job as a follower of Jesus is not to completely understand my heavenly Father … but to trust in His goodness … and out of love be obedient to His ways. Easy to say … but tough to do … especially if your son or daughter lost their life on that college campus April 16th.
I think about this stuff a lot. I’ve realized that even when a person’s senseless death leaves me dumbfounded, it turns out that God knew exactly how much time He would have to reach that person’s heart. To ask what difference there might have been had this person lived longer is pointless on a certain level, because either God was going win that person’s sould or not, and if it was ever going to happen, it would have.
Then, there are the people around the deceased. Each individual is on a path toward ultimately accepting Jesus’ redemptive act, or not. And the manner in which another’s senseless death weaves into that other one’s life is part of that person’s path, and gives evidence to God of how that person’s spirit feels about Him at the deepest of levels, independent of ones flesh. Of course God already knows, but putting us in the particular body that He did, and allowing us to live through what we do, appears to either mold or reflect how we, in our spirit, will love God or hate Him.
And that is what it comes down to for me, personally. How will I get through this experience… loving Him or hating Him? How will I impact others who must get through their own lives, as one who loves God, or one who hates Him? When we all go before God, we will have to give an accounting, and regardless of what our answers are, it will all make sense, and all be without excuse. And within that truth, I am grateful for Christ and how His redemption of me… because I love God, I know I am without excuse.
I know how someone who doesn’t know God can poke holes in this… but then, it’s not about them.