A Matter of Belief

"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." - 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

Do you believe it?

Of course I believe it! I've been taught to believe it since I was a child! It's in the Bible, isn't it? Why wouldn't I believe it?

What have you done recently to prove you believe it? Where is the evidence? Why do you believe it?

I'm sure this is a conversation that almost every believer has had with themselves or with someone else at some point in their relationship with Christ. It sounds good as a passage of the Bible, it is immensely entertaining as a series of fiction. We expect to hear about it from the pulpit. But when you truly bring it home, when you look it in the eye and feel the doubt rise up within, what do you do? Do you turn away from it and be content to believe it from afar? Or do you look closer? Do you face your doubts and concerns and find whether or not they are warranted?

Jesus said we wouldn't know times and dates. But I can't find any reason to believe that we won't know it's coming, won't see the evidence for His return written across world events, hidden behind growing unrest and rebellion against God. I think it's obvious even in the pages of Revelation that the time He will return to claim His church is amazingly near. Even as the world grows more hostile to Christ, more unwilling to admit His deity and His love, our hearts compel us to simply wait patiently a little longer, for the hour is close.

After all, He is only waiting for that last soul that will claim Him as Lord. He won't hesitate a moment after that.

So what will you do with your faith in His return? Will you live your life for yourself? Will you accumulate possessions and store up wealth you are soon to leave behind? Can you really worry over the future, over growing old, over death? In the light of such astounding truth can you be content to pursue no more than the daily tasks that are survival?

I challenge you today to think of ways to show your Lord you are ready, and anxious to hear the trumpet sound announcing his imminent arrival. I urge you to make known your faith in some tangible way. I was prompted several years ago to fill a manila envelope with letters, postage, a new testament, and further instructions for those I might leave behind when we are called to a meeting in the air. It's marked "Not to be opened except in the case of our disappearance" and it's waiting in a drawer of my dining room hutch for someone to find after we leave. I pray it will be of eternal use to someone.

What will you do? The time is coming soon. If you stop to listen, you'll hear the promise, whispered sweetly and softly in the breeze. I am coming soon.

What will your response be?

Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

When you have everlasting NVP ("Nausea and Vomiting of Pregnancy"), you spend a great deal more time in front of the television. Although I enjoy movies tremendously, I am not much of a TV watcher save the 4 or 5 months of pregnancy that are misery.

All this is to explain why I happened upon a less than morally outstanding program late at night recently. Don't be too shocked, I know I'm not the only one who has seen Scrubs. Sometimes it's downright funny. The characters and setting are interesting. Depending on the episode, the faults can range from mildly crude to unduly risque to downright irreverent, which is why I usually make myself turn the channel. But something about this episode caught my attention. If you don't know the premise, it is a comedy about interns and residents in a hospital. The characters this particular episode was concerned with were Dr. Cox, the very grumpy head doctor, and a nurse named Laverne. Laverne had been established as the resident Christian, and the show has had great fun tearing apart her beliefs and making her appear either hypocritical or foolish for her faith. For whatever reason, the actress was leaving the show, so they decided to have her die in a car accident. The entire episode crabby Cox had been berating her for believing that there was a reason why bad things happened to seemingly good people. He couldn't believe in a God who would allow such things. Of course, Laverne had no answer, but was triumphant as the little girl who had been stabbed was found to have a tumor when they gave her an MRI, a tumor that would have killed her had it not been found.

In the wake of that blessing in disguise, Laverne dies in an accident on her way to work. Cox is left with no answer to his question, because obviously Laverne was a good person and she suffered by losing her life.

In this episode, rather than feeling irritated at the irreverent and mocking tone Scrubs sometimes takes, I found it to be very honest. A cry from the darkness saying "This is why I don't believe! Can you give me any reason to believe in a God who seems to turn a blind eye to our suffering?

Unfortunately, my answer as a Christian is usually lacking, just as Laverne's was. We KNOW the answer, but for some reason we don't try to put it into words. It's enough that we understand. But it's not! The reason we are here on earth and not already home in heaven with our Savior is because God loves all the ones who are still wondering who He really is. It's our job to show them the love of an amazing, unbelievable Being who has made all that we are and have.

Of course, the best way to show the love of Jesus is not usually with words. Sacrifice and the act of caring for others speaks much louder than our arguments and philosophies might. But when the question is asked, it deserves an answer.

The simple answer is that God is not responsible for the bad things that happen in this world. We are. Even the person who we consider "good" is still imperfect and sinful in the eyes of a completely holy God. Suffering did not enter this world when God created it. Suffering followed sin, and until God destroys this infected old world, suffering will still be a part of our lives. Why does He let it continue then? The Bible has a very clear answer for that question as well. In fact, it's written on my daughter's wall. 2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

God understands much better than we do the price of sin. He understands it so much that he let a good man called Job suffer tremendously to let us all know for generations to come that our side of the matter is not all there is. He understands so well that he was willing to send His eternal and perfect Son into this world, knowing that he would suffer far beyond any human ever will. Not so much physically, though he definitely experienced pain, but as the only perfect man to ever live, taking upon himself all the sin of every person who ever lived. That's suffering. So we never have a right to point a finger in the face of God and accuse him of being unaware of what it's like to suffer.

What do we say then, when someone who has yet to understand the plan of God asks the age old question, why do bad things happen if there is a perfect God?

I'd say it's out of love. God created us, knowing we'd fail, but knowing that He was willing to go the distance for us. We don't really understand this love, because we love usually hoping for something in return. God did everything. We don't need to do anything, and we can be as miserable and corrupt as possible and his love will not change. There is nothing I can do that God is not willing to forgive because of what Jesus did.

And we really begin to understand His love when we surrender our belief that we are "good." When we accept the truth, His Truth, we begin to see the love He has lavished on us since the moment he created us. God is good. God is love. God wants us all to belong to him, no matter who we are or what we've done.

Because of Jesus.