when God does not play fair (part 2)

To read part one of this post, please click HERE

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,  neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the Lord.

Isaiah 55: 8

Over Christmas, I went to a women's event at my mom's church (the church I grew up in). The pastor's wife focused on 'thinking higher'.  Don't let our focus become on the here and now, letting circumstances determine our thoughts, but instead focus on who God is and how He is showing himself in our situation.  Higher thoughts with a Higher focus.

It's innate in all of us - the thought process that if we do good, we should expect good in return. Human logic tells us that somehow our actions will ultimately determine the outcome of our situation.  When this sort of cause and effect is going on, our brains can operate in a faithless numb.  We can psychoanalyze any situation that is working under this Karma type of belief and feel like we ultimately control what goes on in our life.  We strive harder, eat better, learn more, and we give back.  We do and do and do with the expectation of a good return, that nothing bad will happen to us or those we love if we have this kind of right living.  Earthly thoughts with an earthly focus.  

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways,

    and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Isaiah 55: 9

I battled an intense anger towards God when Ryan was diagnosed with Lyme Disease.  As I talked to more and more people trying to learn about what Lyme Disease was, the suffering of what others were going through about swallowed me up.  In my mind, God wasn't playing fair.  You don't let a person suffer if you have the power to reach down and heal them.  

On the day of Ryan's diagnosis, we had family friends in Hawaii who said goodbye to their sister, Malina.  A 25 year old young wife and mother who lost a six month long battle with cancer.  As she went home to heaven, her three year old daughter was left without a mommy.  Her husband was given the job of single parent and widower all in the same moment.  Wouldn't it have been so much better for everyone if she had been healed, or better yet, never had to battle cancer to begin with.  In my thinking, it would also have been better of the Lord to heal Ryan of Lyme Disease right then and there, miraculously, even as the doctor was giving her diagnosis.  Again, earthly thoughts with an earthly focus.

It must be so strange for those who do not call Jesus their Lord and Savior to hear us Christians talk about God.  To listen to our Christian chatter and hear us claim that there is a God who loves us unconditionally.  A God that cares about us so intensely that He sent His son to die on the cross so that we could spend eternity in Heaven.  To be honest, over the past 3 years I have, at times, listened to myself talk and question the very core beliefs I've stood so solidly on.  How can a God who claims so much love for us allow us to suffer so greatly?  If what He allows isn't a lot of times fair or seemingly just, am I being dysfunctional and naive to believe in Him and claim his name for all of you to read?  

If God's thoughts and ways are not like mine, is this a good thing or a bad thing?  If His thoughts and actions can't be followed by human logic, what does this mean for us?  How can we think and focus on something Higher? 

15 year old, Arie, was driving the vehicle when the accident happened.  Jeff was sitting in the passenger seat with Nick right behind him and Zach behind Arie.  They were in an SUV traveling on a two lane highway.  When the vehicle rolled, Jeff and Nick's side of the vehicle took the brunt force.  Instinctively, Nick reached up and grabbed his head with both of his hands.  Miraculously, his head was spared major trauma with just the middle of head receiving 10 staples and his finger requiring surgery.  Instinctively, as a daddy, instead of protecting himself Jeff threw his arms out towards Arie, protecting him as the accident happened. 

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139

'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11

Before Malina was born, before Jeff was born, before you were born, and before I was born, the Lord knew and called to existence our earthly birth and our earthly death.  Our circumstances are not what ultimately take our life, argue it as we may.  The Lord's infinite calling on our birth and death, by His sovereignty, is the deciding factor (this is not an excuse to live foolishly or to negate taking responsibility for your action- if you were drunk driving and killed a person, it was still under God's sovereignty that the person you killed died BUT both your personal conscience and the consequences you experience will be vastly different, justifiably so, than that of what  we are talking about). 

Arie was entrusted with a huge responsibility.  He will get to choose, on a daily basis, the exceptional opportunity he has to walk in the faith that there was nothing he could have changed that Friday that would have saved his dad.  The Lord allowed Arie to be driving, yes, but Arie was being responsible and trustworthy with the task he was given.  Arie was not responsible for Jeff going home to heaven, God was.  

Treva, Emilee, Arie, and Zach will also have the divine opportunity to step onto a platform of giving God glory as they walk through this season of loss and pain.  The platform draws the attention of many onlookers, many are curious about such intense suffering and if God can truly heal a heart after such difficult circumstance.  This platform will also draw the intense scrutiny of Satan.  Satan despises when God gets any sort of attention so will do his best to defeat this precious family into thinking that God is mean and distant- that He doesn't really care about them.  He will try to trick them into falling into despair because her husband and their daddy isn't with them.   

Nick has been given one of the most honorable rolls a Christian can play in our lifetime.  He gets to support and encourage his best friend, Arie, to look up when he's feeling down.  To trust when he's not feeling the 'feelings' of faith.  To keep going when he wants to quit.  God specifically chose to have Nick where he was when he was - it was no accident.

Like I said above, I was angry at God when Ryan became sick (and at seeing so many others who were sick and suffering) because God was not acting how I thought He should.  He had allowed something that seemed so unnecessary and cruel.  I put up barriers towards Him and tried to punish Him into submitting to my will - a world of no sorrow, loss, or pain.  In my narrow-minded vision, I stepped back from receiving his comfort and peace in exchange for my hurt and anger.  When the pain became too much for me to bear, I turned back to the Lord and He met me where I was at - with comfort, strength, and peace.  He was there all along, working out His perfect will, even while I questioned His plans.  The desire I had in my heart for a 'perfect world', pain free, was really just my longing for what He has for us in Heaven.  I tell you this so that you know this blog post is not spoken lightly or without merit but through a heart that has questioned God more over the last 3 years than in my entire lifetime.  

God promises us that He has good plans for us, no matter what our earthly circumstances look like.  His best, He saves for last, which is Heaven.  Heaven will be what we all long to happen here on earth, a place of no more tears and no more suffering.  Jeff and Malina lived well and died well.  Their work on earth was done and their eternal future was ready for them.  We can’t see how much they are prospering because our work on earth is not done yet.

So, what do we do then, when we feel like God is not playing fair?  We trust Him and remember that we are still called to live and to live well.  We have the great privilege of living with God’s truth and His presence.  To live with Higher thoughts and a Higher focus. To live with the hope that no matter how difficult our circumstances here on earth, as a Christian, we have the hope of heaven!

And all God’s children said, AMEN

P.S. Treva made this comment in regards to this post: "I would love to write a follow up post as well that says...."when He shows us a glimpse of His glory". I don't know how many times in the first three days after I found out jeff "didn't make it" (as the chaplain said)...that I thought this wasn't fair. Why would God let this happen? But truly, just like God put Moses in the rock to show him a glimpse of His glory....if He showed Moses all of His glory, He couldn't handle it. But this glimpse is what I've seen in the midst of deep suffering. My life wrecked and rolled over just like the car that day. My life is not like it was three weeks ago. It's completely different!! So yes, we rely on God when life gets hard. And yes, we trust Him to build our faith. But we also watch for Him to show us His glory!! There are a million things the Lord has done in three weeks. A glimpse is all I have seen....and I would not trade what I have witnessed for anything."

Jeff's back is to us and he is doing a dance- getting ready to walk right into His saviors arms where He got to hear
'Well done, good and faithful servant.'

when God does not play fair (part 1)

Three times in my life I have felt the presence of Jesus so strong, so present, so consuming, there was no denying His all but physical presence in the room.  The first was when I flew on an airplane after overcoming a 10 year long battle with anxiety attacks (flying was an all-consuming fear).  The second was during Ellie's birth and the several days following.  The third was 3 Friday nights ago.

I had been out doing yard work, leaving my phone inside because I knew I would not be able to hear it over the sound of the mower.  When I came in, it was just before 6:00 p.m.  I noticed that my friend, Kristi, had left me a message almost an hour and a half earlier.  She wasn't panicked, but there was a tone in her voice that made my heart start pounding.... “There's been a car accident...I'll update you when I know more.”  She explained quickly that her son, Nick, had gone hunting earlier that morning just outside of a town about an hour and a half away.  He had gone with our mutual friend's (Treva) husband Jeff, and Treva and Jeff's boys, Zach and Arie.  They had been on their way home when the accident happened.  Kristi knew that Nick, Zach, and Arie had sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were being transported to the hospital.  She did not know how Jeff was other than he had sustained more substantial injuries than the others.  Kristi ended her 4:30 p.m. message with “please pray.”
In the hour and a half between when Kristi left the message and when I listened to it, she and her husband, Lenny, had traveled the hour and a half to the hospital where the three boys had been taken.  Our friend, Treva, had been notified about the accident and had also just arrived at the hospital.  During their drive over to the hospital, it was unclear which hospital Jeff had been taken to.  It was known that a medical helicopter had arrived at the scene making the hospital search a bit larger than just local, but his name was not recognized by hospital staff even as far as five hours away.  As Treva walked into the hospital, she would learn that the Lord was entrusting her with one of the biggest responsibilities given this side of heaven - a responsibility that defies all human logic and reason.  A responsibility that would include a great deal of heartache, a great deal of courage, but most of all a great deal of faith.
Nick, Arie, and Zach were discharged from the hospital several hours after arriving with staples on a head wound, a broken heel, a broken finger, and a moderate amount of cuts and scrapes....all of which would heal up relatively quickly.  They were also discharged with, again, one of the biggest responsibilities given this side of heaven- a responsibility that defies all human logic and reason.  A responsibility God entrusted them to walk with throughout their life that would require much endurance in their faith.  
Even though Kristi said she would update me when she knew more, I couldn't help but call her right back after receiving her message.  When we hung up, I immediately walked out our front door, where Matt and Eli were sitting talking, and told them about Kristi's call.  The three of us gathered into a small huddle, and, through tears, prayed for the situation.  I could also feel God pressing on my heart that we needed to go be with Kristi's and Treva's families.  

At 3:55 p.m., March 10, 2017, as the car went off the road, Jeff went home to be with our Lord and Savior.  He was given the ultimate earthly victory....he was ushered into Heaven.  

Matt, Eli, and I arrived around 9:30 p.m.  After the boys had been discharged from the hospital, everyone had gathered at the house of one of Jeff's best friend's, who lives in the same town as the hospital.  When I walked into the house, the presence of Jesus was so real you could feel it with each breath you took.  You have an enormous amount of grief and then an enormous amount of Jesus.  I'm not talking about an enormous amount of 'talking' about Jesus.  I'm talking about an enormous amount of the presence of Jesus.  The combination is heartbreakingly soothing.  A peace that passes all understanding alongside an anguish that is indescribable. One part of you wants to fall to your knees and worship while absorbing His very real presence, while the human side of you wants to shake a fist in anger and shout 'WHY, LORD...WHY!'

How could a 'loving' God allow 2 precious boys (Arie is 15 and Zach is 12) to witness the heavenly homecoming of their father in such a tragic way?
How could a 'loving' God allow that last precious boy in the car (Nick is 17) to be involved in something so horrific?
How could a 'loving' God take the life of a man who was productive in society, a good father and husband, an elder at church, an active youth group leader?
It's these situations that make the non-Christian shake their head and feel sorry for us brain washed souls who believe in such nonsense as God.
It's also these situations that make some of us Christians get the faith speed wobbles.  We get bitter and angry and full of self-pity thinking, “I've served you well, Lord, and you repay me with this?!”  We can allow our hearts to become passive aggressive towards the Lord.  Still smiling and proclaiming His name outwardly through our pain while our hearts inwardly curse Him.  Holding him at arm’s length in an effort to punish Him for not playing what we deem is fair.


So, what do we do then when we feel like God's not playing fair?  Where do we turn and how do we slow our hearts down enough to turn the speed wobbles into a faith victory and not a crash and burn....

To read part 2 click HERE

From Treva's Instagram

For those of you who have not already, I would like you to meet Treva and her family.  A local Christian Radio/TV station put this video together.