THERE HAVE BEEN

A LOT OF ARTICLES WRITTEN

about why bad things happen to good people. Every day we read about it, or hear about it, or, it happens to us.
Tragedy.
Sickness, death, robbery, assault, jobs lost, lives lost, or changed forever.

It has broken many folks down completely. I used to work with a guy who said that he stopped believing in God when his father died. He didn't elaborate, but I'll bet he prayed like crazy for God to heal his father, and when He didn't, my friend gave up. On God.
Wow.
When we give up on God, what are we really giving up?
Are we giving up control, and trying to do what's right, for God's sake?
Are we throwing in the towel, and saying that we need to live, NOW, for the moment, grab all the gusto you can, for tomorrow we die!
Are we giving up the idea that there might be a higher reason for our existence, that we're not simply animals with animal wants and needs?

Or, bottom line, are we giving up hope. Are we deciding that this is it, good or bad as it might be, so we better just make the best of it for ourselves.

Ourselves.

Aye, there's the rub. If there's no God, then maybe that's what this whole life is about.

Back to the question of why folks like the Namy's, people who've done no harm, and a whole lot of good, loving Christians all; why them?

My own life has been truly blessed. My wife and daughters have lived healthy lives, enriched by the Lord, and sustained daily by His grace. We have done nothing to deserve this grace, in fact in my own life I am gratefully mystified as to why the Lord has been so good to me. I am truly humbled by His love.

I do find, though, that in my lowest moments, when the world closes in on me, and I cannot run, or hide from myself, I fall into the arms of Jesus. It is in these times that I feel closest to my savior. My need for Him, for His grace and mercy, is deeply etched in my very bones.

A good friend of ours, Alaina Kulikowsky, once gave me words of wisdom that I have never forgotten. When I asked her why she and her husband Kevin stayed working for Young Life, a worthy but extremely difficult ministry, she explained that nothing else she ever experienced brought them closer to Jesus.

And maybe, the bottom line is, that's what this difficult, often painful life is all about.

Reaching out for a Savior that longs lovingly for that reaching.

Holding our arms out to God.

Do we get the point?