WHY?

Why? The ages old poignant wracking of the senses regarding senseless suffering or injustice. WHY does God allow such evil and suffering?

My lovely songbird friend, a mother of a small son and very idealist, cried to me not many afternoons ago. Her life is in shambles and she wonders how she can redeem herself from her credit rating destroyed by her irresponsible soon-to-be ex husband. She was distraught, but proceeded to share her feelings about a young humanitarian church woman who was followed from her church by a man who then brutally raped and murdered her.She could not understand why God did not step in the save this woman from her horrndous demise.
My friend and I are both very creative in art, music and fashion

Life happens and reality reigns.Though poets and artists hope their art will change the world, the reality is we are just a drop in the bucket. Lately, several in my inner circle sing the same refrain, "I am weary, burned out and ready to go home." I too, long to go home to be with Christ, my King where he will rule justly and there will be no more tears nor injustice.

As I write this entry, a soft rain falls. My front lawn is nothing more than dry, maize straw. I pray there will be enough moisture to restore the barren, parched grass into wholeness as I await my own parched spirit to regenerate into the fullness I used to have. I ponder the conversations of my closet confidants who poured there hearts out to me regarding many unpleasantness happening in the lives the past year.

"I can't understand what is going on," they say, exasperated.
The doubtful and the unbelieving ask, "Where is God in all this." I've been around the block long enough to know that God is in the midst of our most fiery trials. He never promised to keep us from them, but he did promise to be with us through them.

My temple has fallen apart the past three years. Every organ and gland in my body was damaged by the Lyme spirochete.My health practitioner, Natalia recently retested me with her digital diagnostic machine and smiled in pleasure.I had improved about 40%. We gazed at my first test. She looked at me,

"Young lady, I didn't want to frighten you last year, but you were very near paralysis." Tears filled my eyes as I ascertained God's mercy in helping me to decree that I would recover fully.As I gaze at the dry, nearly dead lawn in front of me, I see the parallel God shows me, his miraculous hand and restorative power! My redeemer lives, but had my words and healing declarations not be said...where would I be now?

God was cultivating a radical concept and practical formula of recovery and it was by speaking aloud His spoken Word. Do I believe that He is the resurrection and the life?

I call myself a Christian, a little Christ, an imitator of my Master who bought me with a great price at Calvary by His shed blood. At this stage in my faith walk, do I truly believe He is who He said He is?

Grueling tests before and at present, disappointments, acute physical and mental anguishes, heartaches, alienations, postponed dreams and visions.

Mary groaned about her brother Lazarus's death, weeping, "Lord, if you had been there, my brother would not have died."

And Jesus, answered, "Did I not say to you that if you believe You would see the glory of God?"

faith that pleases God must encapsulate unwavering and consistent belief and trust in what He will bring to pass, regardless of what is NOT. Having that strong, unwavering faith and trust avails the promise...His word. Faith is a choice. I choose life if I want to live Duet. 30:19.

We must ask, seek and knock. Will we expect to receive anything from God when we are shifting back and forth like the waves of the sea. God has committed our lives to success and restoration. Sometimes He will take us through the roughest and most barren terrain and leave us to die...before He will resurrect us!

My own tests have pushed me to the very limits of my human and spiritual endurance. In my grasping for tangible relief or trusting in my own efforts, I have failed to receive the promise already mine. I stand at the crossroads and await His direction. The saints before me cheer me on as I lift myself up from a fall.

This is what the journey is about, trusting Him even living in a broken body. Do I believe that He is my healer and that I am made whole? Do you believe?