Why?

I'm just thinking this morning, as I start another week, about another life that has ended. I must tell you that I have been doing far too many funerals lately. It's especially hard when they are people I knew well. Tonight I have the opportunity to be part of a service for a man I have known for years. He battled chronic illness with several problems, and in the last year of his life spent many weeks in hospital. He and I would sit in the hospital room and visit about the "whys" of life....why was his life so hard? Why did others have things so easy? Why couldn't he just go "home" to be with Lord? Why was God allowing all of this?

So, this morning, as I prepare for that service I am just thinking about the whys.....

In fact this is a question that King David often asked in the book of Psalms. Why? Let me quote one of his prayers for our visit today....

Psa 42:11 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

I know, from years of watching, that most of the "why" questions of life have no answers here. We honestly wouldn't understand the answer if God told us, but one day we will know. One day we will understand.

So, until then my task is to turn my attention from the difficult question to the amazing God who loves me. My focus should be this- Hope in God.....He will sustain us through this life, regardless of the problems, and will love us as we live through it all.

Tonight there will be people asking me "why?" And, honestly, I have no answer for them.....I can't hand them a wonderful answer for their question, but I can point them to a big God who loves them through it all.

To many, this will answer nothing. They would scoff at my comments saying I have resolved nothing, and they would be right. But it's not my job to resolve anything...it's my job to know the God who resolves everything in his perfect presence....and if that's not enough then nothing would satisfy them. There is a place in life where we say, "I don't know, but I trust God", and that will be enough.