Bad things happen to good people. It's the hardest fact to accept in every life. Kind people get taken advantage of daily. Healthy people still get sick. The most beautiful relationships end sometimes. The people we thought would always be in our life leave. And unfortunately, they don't always come back. Really bad things happen to really good people all the time.
With all this pain, despair, and darkness in the world, it can be too easy to start asking where's God during all of this? How can he abandon us in our time of need? How could he let this happen? We're supposed to believe God has a plan for us, but how can so much heartbreak be a part of that plan?
Where is God?
The answer is simple to say, but hard to accept. Because the truth is, he's still right by your side, even if you can't see him there. In fact, it's the times that you can't see him that he's working closest to you.
When you're going through dark times, it can feel like you'll never see the light again. Life gets really heavy sometimes, and we all occasionally lose our way. But if you hold firm to your faith in God, then you know you could never truly be lost. God's plan is bigger than our human mistakes. No matter what we may think sometimes, no one is smarter than God. Where we see a scary unknown, he sees a clear and bright future.
But you have to hold on. It will take longer than a day. It may even take longer than a week. Most of the time, it will take much longer than you'd like. But God's plan doesn't work by your time frame. And the longer you push against it, the longer it will take. You have to let go and let God. It's the only way to get where you're truly supposed to be.
And that's the important part you have to realize. God may not take you where you wanted, but he will lead you to what you need. And I promise it will be better than you could have even imagined. God's plan is beyond human understanding. So you can't try to figure him out or picture where he's going to lead you next. All we can do is enjoy the ride. God will give you what you ask for, but only if you ask in the right way.
You can't ask God to take your suffering away. You can't ask him to bring your loved ones back. You can't ask him for a pain free life. And you can't ask him to speed up his process. That's just not how it works. Trusting God means trusting his timing. Don't wait for your problems to go away, wait for God to show you the way through them.
Pray that you'll find the patience to wait for God to show you that way. Pray that you'll find peace of mind to accept where you are, especially if it's not where you wanted to be. Pray for an open heart to feel the pain, but to feel the joy, too. Pray for the people hurting you. In the end, they will be the ones who need it most. The people that God decides are supposed to be in our life will always find their way back to it. Pray for strength for those going through difficult times. And pray for the grace to hold onto faith and be grateful even if it feels like you have nothing to be grateful for. Because I promise, you still do.
A lot of people say they want to grow in their faith. But are we willing to walk through the storms that lead to that? We don't grow when we aren't challenged. Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said "we grow in kindness when our kindness is tested." And in that same sense, we can only grow in our faith when our faith is tested.
If you pray for God to give you an unshakable faith, then he will give you the opportunity to do just that. Don't waste it. Instead, learn to embrace it. Even when you grow weary, his strength will carry you through. So don't worry, have hope. Because hope is the only thing stronger than fear. Remember love never fails. And God will always be our light in the darkest of times.
"If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?"
-Evan Almighty
