The Problem with Loss

The Problem with Unexpected Loss

“Through the eyes of men, there is so much we have lost..”   L.Daigle

The problem with loss is that we see and judge it through our human eyes. We then seek and demand answers from God using those human eyes.

What if we judged God not by what our circumstances were but by His eternal attributes: Who we know Him to be?

What if we started with God’s character and worked back from there?

God is always good, ever loving, faithful, true, just… therefore, when difficult challenges come it isn’t a lack of God’s goodness,  love, faithfulness, truth or justice but rather a lack of our perspective or understanding of the immensity of God’s ways. What if we allowed the possibility that we might lack the depth of vision that God has? Surely it is better to believe a God Whose knowledge is far above our own instead of a god who is as impotent and acts according to our fears and lack of vision.

It is not so much a question of why God would do/allow this but rather a trusting that His goodness, love, faithfulness, truth and justice will be accomplished despite the horror of this challenge.

God did not ‘take’ Marcia but He did receive her. And though it may seem unjust and inconceivable to me, that is not Who my God is so there must be another answer that I cannot see.  

There’s a song by Amy Grant that carries me through my losses. She sings: “Somewhere down the road, there will be answers to my questions. Somewhere down the road though I cannot see it now. Somewhere down the road there will be mighty arms reaching for me and they will hold the answers at the end of the road.”

God does not let me down during my storms. He offers me Himself, the strength to trust, the freedom to grieve and the assurance there will be answers that I cannot see right now.

Isn’t far more likely a deficit in me and not in God? My inability to see/ understand rather than God’s inability to act appropriately according to what I would prefer?

It is too easy to blame God because the world is broken and far harder to trust He will make a way when we see no way with our human vision.

If God is Who He says He is, then He’s got this. My job is to trust that He does even when I cannot conceive of the how or why.

We truly do not know Who He is, the depth of His vision and grace, His powerful love and ……. Justice.  Though we cannot see it now… He is all of Who He says He is and more.

Through the eyes of man there is so much we have lost… But through the eyes of God… we can trust in the hope He promises.

June, 2018

AMRB