This journey has been difficult. If you’ve been reading my blogs you probably already knew that! And maybe I knew it myself coming into it, but I couldn’t have known exactly how I was going to be challenged, so I didn’t know how I was going to feel. So when tough stuff comes my way and punches me in the gut, I find myself again and again wanting to ask God “Why?”
Why did it have to go down this way?
Why does is have to sting so much?
Why can’t You make this just a little easier on me?
I want to grow and I know that going through trials produces good stuff in me, but in cultivating a personal relationship with the God who holds all the cards it’s hard not to want to ask “Um, can I get an explanation here? I know this could’ve been easier/more comfortable/whatever if You had just done it my way.”
The danger here is that these kind of questions can lead you to asking if God’s good, in control, or even real.
I know because I went there. But I’ve got the answers for you: yes, absolutely, and without a doubt.
So why then? Why is it always the long hard road that leads home? If He’s good, why doesn’t He give us a break? If He’s truly in control, why doesn’t He make a shortcut for us? If He’s real, why does it feel like we’re all alone sometimes?
The answer to this one is simple. You need to stop asking so many questions.
Trust that He is good, in control, and real. Maybe you don’t like that answer, but it’s the truth! You just need to have faith that a break would not be His best for you, the short cut is not what He in His perfect wisdom has chosen, and He wants to use the times that you feel alone to grow, shape, and mold you.
There’s something about the struggle, the journey, that our God is just nuts about. He loves the process. He could definitely choose to just give us what we want, but then that’d be all we have in the end. Instead, He lures us out into a quest to fight for it, and at the end of it all we get what we wanted plus growth, character, and a closer relationship with our Father.
I saw this when I was reading in John chapter 6 the other day. In the middle of a storm, Jesus walks on water to meet his disciples rowing across the sea. They’ve been struggling for miles through the night and when they see Jesus coming towards them it freaks them out. He tells them not to be afraid and they happily receive Him into the boat. Then, just like that, after hours of wrestling with rough waves and strong wings, verse 21 says that “immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.”
What?!
If Jesus had the power to teleport then why didn’t they travel that way more often? Look at the gospels. Jesus is uncomfortable a lot. Long journeys, hard work, poor living conditions. But He never uses His power just to make things easier on Himself or even for the ones He loves. It seems like Jesus only steps in to do something miraculous when then end goal is to glorify God and bring people closer to Him. A lot of the time He chooses to accomplish this goal by not stepping in and miraculously eliminating all challenges and struggles.
Our Heavenly Father allowed Jesus to walk through some extremely difficult things (death on a cross being one of them) for His greater purposes… Why do I expect Him to do any different for me? I’m now learning to trust that He is a good Dad who loves me with a perfect love and will never forsake me.
I can already see how He is using the journey for my own good. How has He done the same in your life? Maybe some of the things that we have been begging Him to take away or change are the very blessings that He’s chosen to use most mightily to benefit us in our journey towards Him.
