MY SUNDAY QUOTE OF THE WEEK... 10/06/2019
“Faith in God includes faith in his timing”
~Neal A. Maxwell
I’m reading this quote over and over again trying to let it soak in…trying to immerse myself in the true meaning of it. I’ve come to realize that when things fall into place in a way that I understand and agree with, my faith in HIM and HIS timing his never in question but when the “reasons” are unclear to me, HIS timing –subsequently, my faith in HIM- is put in question… WHY?
Why does God allow suffering to happen? More specifically, why does God let bad things happen to good people? Why doesn’t he stop the evil? What is the purpose? What is the lesson? What are the reasons?
Each day brings new tragedy that we don’t understand. The Holocaust. A small child dying in his mother’s arms when medical treatments fail. A newlywed couple is killed by a drunk driver as they leave for their honeymoon. A faithful missionary family is attacked and killed by the very people they were ministering to. The lone woman seating on the same rooftop that now covers her lifeless family she hadn’t been able to save during a hurricane. The boy crying at the loss of his entire family in a Tsunami along with the thousands that drowned. Many others are buried in earthquakes. Carefree and passionate marathon runners and supporters getting hurts and losing their lives, limbs after an unspeakable assault. Thousands are killed in a terrorist attack… or simply a mother being kept from her flesh and blood, by her own flesh and blood, when all she wants in her old age is to be with her descendants…
I don’t know the reasons why God allowed all of these things to happen. I understand HE gave us free will and probably don’t want to violate that gift. Why ones free will should affect someone else’s life? Do we need to be interconnected at all time?
I’m sure HE could stop some of the horrible things that don’t involve free will, the things that are just a mere display of evil in the world.
But then again, I'm human. I can't see as God sees... I cannot in good conscience say that, because I see no possible reason(s), therefore no reason(s) could possibly exist. Without God-eye-perspective on things, I simply don't have the ability to make judgment calls on the justice or injustice of God's actions (or inactions).
Real faith in God includes not only faith in HIM, but in HIS timing, and because I don’t always understand thus accept HIS timing (or what I perceive as lack of involvement in making things right) it is one of the things that it is most difficult for me to have seamless faith in. I struggle as I want to keep my faith in HIM and HIS timing as two separate entities but know deep down it is one. Never before has this quote rang so true to me.
"With time and perspective most of us can see good reasons for at least some of the tragedy and pain that occurs in life. Why couldn't it be possible that, from God's vantage point, there are good reasons for all of them? "If you have a God great and transcendent enough to be mad at because he hasn't stopped evil and suffering in the world, then you have (at the same moment) a God great and transcendent enough to have good reasons for allowing it to continue that you can't know. Indeed, you can't have it both ways."
~Timothy Keller.
When I question God’s timing, it is often because I am looking for guidance or deliverance from a difficult situation. When I judge or question God's standards of how HE does things, I forget the “wonderful” HE's already done. HE's already given me mercy, opportunity to overcome pain and suffering by believing. I forget the gift HE gave me to face and beat death. I forget everything that HE will eventually return to bring. I forget the promise of everlasting…
In any thoughts, positive or negative, being able to channel them, question them, understand them without really understanding (boils down to faith) and to accept them without really believing in the righteousness of it all is HAVING FAITH IN GOD AND IN HIS TIMING…
We will be okay…
Remember that I always love you - Smooches!
