This month of ministry is coming to a close, a month of hard work and a month filled with kids overflowing with life and love. Every time I look at the girls I can’t help but think of what could have been if they weren’t here. They would most likely be in the sex industry being used for sex and abused every day, never knowing the love and acceptance that Jesus has for them.
It got me thinking about pain.
I used to be a firm believer in the saying:
“Everything happened for a reason”
It was what I told other people and I told myself whenever there was pain, heartache, loss or death.
But I’ve realized that sometimes bad things happen for no reason other than we are human beings having a human experience.
Pain in life is inevitable.
We all struggle. We all suffer. We all experience pain, heartache and loss.
And again there’s no real reason other than we are human and pain is a part of the process.
Another thing I’ve struggled with is finding how the death of a loved one or a horrible breakup is in “God’s will”
What even is Gods Will, we always talk about it but what does it really mean…
Here’s what I’ve come to know about God’s will:
“Gods will isn’t an event that happened to us, it’s how we respond to what happens.”
God never willed all this pain in the world. He never wanted a little girl to be sold into sex-trafficking. He never wanted a child to be viewed as a resource rather than a human. He never wanted your loved one to battle cancer. He never wanted that teenage girl to be raped. He never wanted the genocides that killed millions in torturous and inhumane ways.
His will is for us to walk through pain with him.
He wants to walk through the abuse, through the death, through the illness.
He wants us to draw near amidst the pain.
The hurt will still be there but he hurts with us.
God isn’t a God who just watches from heaven and sees how much you can handle in your life. Life isn’t a game to him.
He is a loving God who wants to help your through the pain, to look forward to the light at the end of the tunnel. So you’ll never have to go through it alone.
Gods plan was for us was to live in perfect peace and harmony with him. But since sin entered the world he had to make a new plan. His new plan for us is to use the painful events in our lives, the pieces to that seem to fall when your life is crumbling down, to build something new and to carry his message to bring hope, grace and mercy to others.
There’s hardly ever an acceptable reason for the bad things that happen in our lives. I wish I could say there’s good in every bad situation but there isn’t.
There’s nothing good about a little girl being sold for sex. But we have to create the good. We need to give purpose and meaning to our suffering.
Not everything happens for a reason. But in everything that happens, there can be reason to bring hope and healing to others. God can use our pain for good if you let him.
