Life is hard, God is good (Part I of II)
By Chris Voss
“It was one of the worst days of my life,” writes Clara Null of Oklahoma City, Okla. in The Christian Reader magazine. “The washing machine broke down, the telephone kept ringing, my head ached, and the mail carrier brought a bill I could not pay. Almost to the breaking point, I lifted my one-yearold into his high chair, leaned my head against the tray and began to cry. Without a word, my son took his pacifier out of his mouth…and stuck it in mine.” Some of you have been there. You understand.
Two students at a Baptist seminary in Alabama decided they would spend their summer doing evangelistic work in the rural area around Montgomery. One hot day, they stopped their car and proceeded up a path to a farm house through a gauntlet of screaming children and barking dogs. When they knocked on the screen door, the woman of the house stopped her scrubbing over a tub and washboard, brushed hair and perspiration from her brow and asked the two Baptist seminary students what they wanted.
“We would like to tell you how to obtain eternal life,” they responded.
The tired and haggard homemaker hesitated for a moment and then looking around replied. “Thank you, but I do not believe I could stand it!”
Life is hard. Whether you are a homemaker or a hard hat, there are difficulties in life that strain our abilities to cope and make sense of life.
A few hundred years ago, the belief was widespread that science would eventually provide all the answers for life and religion would decline as science increased. But as a new millennium begins, science has not provided all the answers of life, and life is still a constant struggle. The conveniences and comforts of the 21st century still are not enough to satisfy our searching for contentment and peace in our lives.
John 14:1-3 (Jesus speaking), “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you unto myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”
Life is hard, but God is good. Our connection to God is an obedient faith. Faith is no abstract notion that somewhere, somehow there is some benign creator who has some meager interest in our lives. That is not faith.
Straight-from-the-heart-no-doubt-about-it faith is a life-style that is built on the rock solid assurance that God will never forsake those who love Him and He will provide a beautiful home in the next world. Faith is a commitment to the conviction that God is so concerned about our individual needs and desires that He is with us in our sufferings and our successes, our joys and our tears, our living and our dying.
Next time: A discussion about tears and the ultimate answer to pain, all considered, in the conclusion to “Life is Hard, God is Good.”
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Chris Voss is a pastor at First Christian Church, 317 S. Main, Donna.