Life is hard, and life is unfair.

Have you ever compared your life to someone else’s, and their life seems picture perfect—great marriage, great kids, great house, great jobs, great—everything.  Then a few years down the road, things have changed, life has hit, perhaps cancer, perhaps death, perhaps divorce, perhaps job loss, or house loss, or loss of any kind.

Life is no longer kind –and in fact life is hard and downright unfair.

I can tend to think when things go well in my life, that God really loves me, and when things are going badly, that God doesn’t love me.

Both thoughts are not true.  The Bible tells us that sometimes, evil people have a great life, and that sometimes, righteous people suffer.

And I want to know:  why? 

When our son died, I wanted to know, why?  Did we somehow do something terrible—did we somehow deserve this?  Did we not have enough faith?   Is there something we could have done to prevent or control Sean’s death from happening?

Right now, my niece is battling cancer.  She has six children, the youngest is still a baby.  We cry out to God to heal her, to make her whole, to keep her here on this earth to raise her children.   Why, we ask? Why her?

We probably each have our own “why’s” for ourselves or our loved ones.

If you are wondering if I am going to answer these questions, the “why’s”, I am not.

I don’t have all the answers or even some of them.  I do know that I have stopped asking “Why me?”  and started asking, “Why not me?”   Why do I think that somehow, I should be exempt from the suffering and hardships of life?  Why do I think that I am entitled to a pain free life?

Jesus went to the cross to save us from ourselves—from the consequences that we have each earned for our sin.  That means we now know the Eternal One—– eternally.  This life is not all there is.  There is another life after this one.  One where sin and sin natures are not allowed to enter—where evil is not allowed to enter—so pain, suffering, heartbreak, trauma and tragedy are not allowed to enter. 

However, all those things are in this life—sin, sin natures, evil, pain, sickness, heartbreak, and death.  So, there will be suffering—not for just some, but for all.  Anyone who tells you differently, is selling you something.  The Bible never says that.  Instead—Jesus tells us, “In this world you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome this world.”  He has overcome this world—He has overcome the pain, the suffering, the unfairness, the hardness, the evil of this world.

What does that mean?  It means He is with us, He is for us, He is dwelling among us.  He loves us.  Nothing will separate us from the love He has for us—not death, not this difficult life, not evil, nothing, nothing, nothing will separate us from Him!!   (Romans 8:28-30)

So Be Encouraged!!