How to get along on the planet, follow Christ,
and have a good time while you're at it.

Part Six: A Game of Chance?

Just roll the dice... pick a card, any card...  Life feels like that sometimes, doesn't it?  Your brother dies in a car crash on his way home from work one night.  Do not pass go...  don't collect anything...  Game over.

It can happen, and it does.  All the time.  That's one reason I tell folks all the time - if you care about someone, let them know, now!  There might not be time later, and you'll regret it forever.  There's even a song about it.

People, yes, even good people, die young sometimes.  A little girl in your sister's class gets cancer.  A friend commits suicide, and your world turns to Hell on earth trying to figure out why, and what you could have done differently.  Life can get pretty weird sometimes.  Your parents split up.  You never saw it coming.  Your best friend gets a girl pregnant, and then pays for her to get an abortion.   Your world feels like it's falling apart.  This can't be happening! All you seem to be able to do is ask WHY...

Coping with the hurt and pain of life will be one of your most difficult challenges.  What do you do?  What strength can you possibly draw on? 

Isaiah
Chapter 40

27

Why, O Jacob, do you say, "What I do is hidden from the LORD, and my rights are disregarded by my God"?

28

Do you not know or have you not heard? The LORD is the eternal God, creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint nor grow weary, and his knowledge is beyond all knowledge.

29

He gives strength to the fainting; for the weak he makes energy abound.

30

Though young men faint and grow weary, and youths stagger and fall,

31

They that put their hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles' wings; They will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.

These verses are a promise!  And remember, God has never, ever, (and never will) gone back on a promise.  But it is up to us to believe it. Or, as the verse says, put our hope in God. The strength God gives us is to help us do normal things, like running and walking through life, as well to do extraordinary things in times of crisis.  Things we never thought we could do.

Life is tough.  People used to believe that if you were sick, or there was an earthquake, that it was a punishment from God.  We know that's not so, God doesn't work that way.  God simply built a world with physical laws designed in a specific way.  So, we have gravity, we have weather, we have sickness.  We are also creatures of Free Will.  To have real freedom, God allows there to be "chance".  Well, it can seem like chance, but everything responds to the laws of this world that God has created.  God has to let us make what can be foolish choices.  Even choices that hurt others, like the drunk driver that kills someone.  Yet, know in your heart that God provides for those that suffer for Him, and lifts them up, carrying them in His arms.  When a person dies, we are sad, because we miss them.  But they see the face of God, and live with Him, forever, in joy we cannot even imagine.

Let God help you when you face troubles that you feel are beyond your understanding.  Let Him comfort you, and raise you up.  Believe He will.  When something happens to you, your emotions can really go haywire.  But to deal with it, you don't need strong emotions.  You just need God to help you.  You can deal with the things this life will throw at you if you can learn to lean on God, and trust Him.

God bless!

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