God, why?

 “He has made everything appropriate in its time.  He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

I have been struggling with what is currently going on in the world with the aftermath of the Japan earthquake—9.0 on the Richter scale, and its subsequent Tsunami that swept people away in their cars and houses while others watched and then the break down of the nuclear plant filling the earth with radioactive poison.  For years I have been stressed over what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust. Last week Guy and I watched a historical account of the bombing in Hiroshima.  It could be Sudan and Kenya rapes that occupy my distressed thoughts.  In Gateway training I learned about one of many organizations, Love 146, that attempt to free and rehabilitate little girls bought and sold for sex trade.  I’ve read David Pelzer’s books of his childhood of abuse. I met kids at the Tennyson Center in Denver who had parents that sexually abused them.  Story after story of terror.   

God, why? Why why why if you are the Benevolent, All-Powerful God that loves us and cares for our little, meaningless hairs, do You not do something?  This has been a repeated prayer of mine for years.   I wrestle with this and argue with God and shame Him and even yell at Him for being so callous and seemingly oblivious.  I have asked so many times, “Why do You make is so hard?”

A still, small voice has broken through my struggles this morning. Eternity. God has set eternity in our hearts. There is an eternity. And we will partake of that eternity.  My fears of events all around inflate to extreme if you consider that this life is all there is. But it’s not all there is. It is long and feels like forever as I am 55 long years old, but it is not eternity.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.”

(John 10:27 – 29)

There are endless references to eternal life and even those who don’t have a bible have “eternity written on their hearts” whether you are a Buddhist, Reincarnationist, or what-have-you. These years (or minutes) spent here in the world of terror are miniscule, small, more like a dot on one “i” in all the books of the entire world.  If I really believe in eternity, and God says it is good, then there must be some balance of fairness and recompense when the traumatized body leaves this portion of eternity and enters a whole, new realm.

The LORD knows the days of the upright,
And their inheritance shall be forever.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time,
And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

(Psalm 37: 18-19, one of many such references)

If this is true, then with open eyes I can see that this present world is not all there is.  While I live on this dotted “i,” my view has shifted to that of eternity.

Lord, don’t let me leave the mirror and forget what You have shown me this morning.  May I use my days wisely and use my time appropriately.  I still want to lift the exploited and help those who need a hand, but never let me forget that this is temporary—even years of suffering is still temporary. You have so much more that I, Kay “will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.”  So, let me keep my eyes focused on You and live like there IS a tomorrow, and trust in You.