Thanks for the many prayers for Jon, (my youngest son), and his surgery yesterday. It went great and it looks like he might even go home from the hospital later this afternoon. I asked his wife this morning to please tell him that I was praying for him night and day and lo and behold in about five minutes he called me. He sounded great! Now we must wait for the pathology report to see if the cancer has spread. I am prayerfully assuming that it has not, and I’m trusting that his next step will be dealing with recovery, without experiencing the side effects common to this surgery which can be numerous and can last for six weeks or God forbid even longer. I told him just to take it one step at a time and to know that God would be with him through it all.
I’m so glad I have Jesus to lean on at times like this. I knew that Jesus was with him every second and would never abandon him and it gave me tremendous comfort. What I did not know was whether God needed Jon in heaven or would heal him and allow him to continue his journey here. I prayed that Jesus would smile on him and just use this incident to build his character and perhaps prepare him to encourage others who suffer from this cancer and provide opportunities to witness for Jesus.
It is my strong belief that nothing happens in this world is due to chance, karma, or luck. There is purpose in this life and God Himself designed it that way. We might not understand it now or ever, but nonetheless His good and noble purpose is being carried out each and every day as He ordains.
Some folks get frustrated because they cannot see God’s purpose and question it. I remember times during my career that low level employees would question my decisions; however, they were not privy to the information to which I had access. They had just one tiny little smidgeon of information that was germane to their particular job, but I had an intimate view of the entire organization. I knew the financial information, the plans for long-term, mid-term, and short-term expansion, the data from every department in the entire organization was mine to peruse. I could understand why someone who could not access but a smidgeon of that information might question my judgment, but they didn’t have access and therefore had to accept by faith that I was doing the right things for the company. It made me angry at those with such limited information when they questioned my decisions, and I assume God is not fond of it either.
If I were to magnify my knowledge base to “infinity”, I could better visualize God’s knowledge base, His purpose for our lives, and the reasons for His decisions. All of which are not readily available all the time. While it is true that we may never understand why certain things happen or are setup the way they are, we should have faith that our God who is perfect in every way has very good reasons for allowing certain things to happen in our lives. To believe otherwise can only drive us to madness.
The common question that has baffled us for eons is why a good God would allow bad things to happen to good people. We know that God loves us as none other due to His sending His own Son to die a terrible death on the cross to atone for our sins so we can live forever with Him. We know from the Bible that God will never abandon us and will be with us forever. With that said we must logically assume that even though we don’t have a clue as to why some things happen, we must believe that it will ultimately result in something good. To me that is the definition of faith.
So why do bad things happen? Have you ever considered that if these events lead to fulfilling a wonderful and good purpose designed by God, are they indeed “bad things”? If that event will result in the fulfillment of something gloriously wonderful, how can it be bad? In Romans 8:28 we are told: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. When our hearts are ripped asunder and we are overcome with grief, faith is our salvation. Practically speaking keeping the faith in these situations is very difficult, but nonetheless, faith is entirely necessary, especially in those situations. Just remember that God loves you! ALWAYS!
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.