As I was driving home from work the other day, I was listening to a radio broadcast and heard an interesting story that got me to thinking. The show was interviewing a young man who had lived a life, and had experiences of a life, that I would not wish on my worst enemy. This young man viewed parents being shot and killed as the murders took his sister into the other room to never be seen again. As they were interviewing him, he made the comment: "How can god let that happen?" and "I don't want anything to do with a god who would kill my parents and take away my sister!."
My first thoughts were rather empathetic towards the young man. I understood. I got what he was saying. And to be honest agreed with him from where he was coming from...Scaring myself some, I began thinking about why, as a Christian, I would be ok with that happening to me. How would I cope or reason or deal with the circumstances God placed in front of me. My first thought pertained to his first question, "How can god let that happen?" and it was this: We live in a condemned world in which we are all fallen creatures subject to our sinful natures. It pains God to see these things happen to us, but provides us with opportunities to show God's sufficiency.
But how comforting is that to this young man? This young man does not want anything to do with God. Then the interviewer made a statement that I will never forget... He said, "God has been there before just like you. He was betrayed by his closest disciples. He was spit on and beaten by people who wanted to kill him. He ended up dying for people who may not ever love him at all." Those few words changed my perception and understanding of Jesus forever. This was a side that I never knew. I grew up in the church and never had such a hard life for this side of Jesus to have any application in my life.
Just look at the life of Jesus. He was sent into this world under immediate prosecution from King Herod (Matthew 2:16). He surrounded himself with 12 men whom followed him and was his closest of friends, and 2 of them betrayed him. Judas sold Jesus' whereabouts to the chief priests to be crucified (Matthew 26:14-56) and Peter denied him 3 times after promising him this would never happened in order to save his own life. Then if those couple of quick examples were not enough, Jesus laid down his life for all of mankind. Some of us have accepted him while others deny him. Those who deny him are obviously a slap in the face, but think of those of us who have admitted to loving him. We are no better than Peter. We go about our daily lives taking for granted what God did for us sending his son to die in our place, without even giving thanks to him.
As harsh as it may sound, we are no better than the young man I heard on the radio denying God and his existence. Admittedly, I do not always live my life remembering what God did or means to me, but after hearing this young man, and comparing our lives, I have a new and refreshed motivation to live for God. Share him with others. And thank him for all that he has done for me. One of the great ole' hymns: Count Your Many Blessing. (Song Link)
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