BAD things do happen to GOOD people!

My teenage daughter's big brown eyes grew in size, questions and sadness as I told her emotionally: "The young girl your age was hit and killed by a car when she and her friends were crossing the street to go pray in a park." I walked away from the conversation with my own and probably the same set of  questions as my daughter..... "Where was God, why did He not protect her?"

Today my heart is aching and pondering over a few  sad events and situations where dear friends and their families are suffering with illness, death and lack of finances. My heart is crying out for these families in prayer and compassion. "Mommy!" my upset four year old's voice rang through the kitchen. "I had a dream of a shark attacking and swallowing me!" "Honey do not be upset Jesus will protect you!" I hear myself comforting him.....

I'm quick to calm my children's hearts, but how do I explain to them that bad things really do happen to good people that love and serve Him? Recently a dear friend bluntly, honestly but coldly after a discussion on this topic commented: "I have seen the righteous forsaken!" I remember his answer shocked me to the bone and send shivers running down my spine. I was speechless and did not have an answer....I just sat there staring out in front of me, hearing the pain in his voice... knowing that he was talking from experience. His comment did not need anymore replies or discussion. We all knew what he was talking about. 

Our family living in Central Asia for the last seventeen years has our own set of stories and incidents that did not go so well either. Fear, lost, betrayal, dissapointment ....all these are emotions we know and had to work through. I do not always understand and ask the "why" question many times. Often it is quiet.. and there are no answers on desperate cries. 

Blessed Be Your Name

In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

BLESSED BE YOUR NAME. by Matt Redman

I know we will never  have all the answers. But I know He is with me always.... drying my tears and holding me close to His heart. I choose to rest my questions at the foot of the cross and not in my heart. I know even in those moments when I cry out: "Where are you? Why?" He is there. I choose as the writer of this song to not have all the answers but to trust in Him that He knows why.