God and Man

So some of you may have seen this painting before, it is by Michaelangelo and it resides on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Well, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel actually is a huge amazing work of art and this picture is just a small small piece of it. This little piece by itself is called "Creation". If you were to zoom out a bit more you would see that the two hands in the picture belong to God and man. God is the one on the right and man the one on the left. I now have a HUGE version of this in my dining room and I LOVE it. It's an amazing piece of art but it has so much more meaning than that to me. Okay so to most, just thinking about an Almightly God taking the time to create and form man in his exact image, well that's an act of love in itself. But as Justin and I were measuring, hanging, and admiring the beauty of my new piece of art, I really looked at it. Look at the hands here, the one belonging to God is out stretched, in fact in the bigger version of the picture you actually see God leaning as far as he can, if he were to lean anymore it looks as though he might fall right out of heaven, but he's trying his hardest. And man, is sitting comfortably (actually leaning back against a rock). Yes, he does have his hand reaching too, I mean, he does acknowledge that God is there, but he seems as though his effort isn't as great. Kinda like he's waiting for God to reach down and touch him and if he would only reach an inch farther for himself, their hands would meet. That is a visual representation of the christian walk with God. Yes, we acknowledge that God is there, that he exists and we pat ourselves on the back because we have our hand lifted toward him in a half-hearted effort. "Well, that's more than most," we think to ourselves. Meanwhile the almighty creator of the universe is struggling with all his heart to get our attention, urning for us to put just a little bit more effort into it. But this means we would have to give up our position on our comfortable little rock, we might even be put in a position that is "God-forbid" uncomfortable... It's so easy to say to Adam in the picture, reach a little further, come on just do it. Yet so hard for me to look in the mirror at myself and say, get out of your comfort zone, do something daring for Christ, show him you want to reach him as bad as he wants to reach you. Today I had to deal with a loss that I wish on no one. One of my precious lovlies passed away. Kathryn Renella was in my 4th block math class and was killed in a car accident this weekend. She was the ham of the class, couldn't close that mouth of hers for anything. And I loved her. Funny how my love can grow for students I have only had for a little over a month now. But, it's kind of like I am their substitute mother for an hour and a half everyday. You just think of them as your own. I love them all. It's hard to show that to a child when your trying to keep up the "mean" teacher act. I hope they all know deep down how much I love them. And I regret not getting to ever really get to know Kathryn. But in the month I did know her, she made me laugh. Something we don't take enough time to do. She made me. We were all just joking on Friday how loud class was going to be again now that she had gotten her voice back (she had laryngitis for a week). She was only 15. I'll miss her, this is something I don't believe you ever truly get over nor understand but, it brings back to memory a blog a posted a while ago...."Why do bad things happen to good people?" So I think it is appropriate that I post that blog again...

"Why do Bad things happen to good people??"
So, by the title of this blog one would think that I must have recently gone through something bad. No, not at all. But for some reason everything I read about lately seems to be dealing with that issue. And not surprisingly, I opened up to prepare the Sunday school lesson and what was the title?? “If God loves us, why does he allow us to suffer?” So I figured I would just write and see what comes out. It doesn’t seem fair, if you think about it. If I really try to live my life right, do all the things God requires of me, I should be safe from harm, and suffering. But, if that were true then wouldn’t I just be living right and following God to keep myself from bad things?? Instead of actually living this way in order to please God and show him I love him. It is easy for me to be faithful when things are all good, when the sun is shining on face and life is right. But is that true faith? If I compare it to the most important human relationship I know, that with my husband, I can see that it is ludacris for me to live my faith like this. For example, what if my husband only loved me when I cooked well, cleaned spotlessly, and loved flawlessly. That wouldn’t be true love, in fact, it would be non-existent love, because I never do everything perfectly. No, but when he hugs me even when I bring home McDonalds for the umpteenth time, and he smiles at me even though my stuff is scattered all over HIS sink in the bathroom, and he gives me a sweet little “I love you” even when I am over-reacting to something small he has done, THAT is when I truly see his love for me. Unconditional love really is the only kind of love that exists, anything else doesn’t qualify to be called love. Much like the story of Job, it is so inspiring. Job is, to me, the truest example of an unconditional faith. Satan himself saw how dedicated Job was to his God and approached Jesus personally. He proclaimed that Job is only so faithful because he has so much, if God would only let Satan throw him some curve balls, Job would fall in his devotion. We would hope that Jesus would then say, “No you will not mess with him, he’s my baby!” But then Satan would win you see, because he would always have the power to proclaim that we only love God because he gives us good things………. But instead Jesus said, “No, I have faith that Job loves me, he is strong for me, throw whatever you want at him, and he will not falter!” I want him to have that much faith in me, and I want to stand under the challenge like Job. Yeah, it’s easy to love and praise and trust in our God when things are peachy, but again, this is love not tested, praise not battered, and trust not trialed. It is when we are in our valleys, when we have hit rock bottom, that our devotion is truly shown. When I am walking through the wilderness, do I trust him then, to “work all things to the good of those who love him”. When I can’t see the light at the end, do I still count on him to lead me through the tunnel?? That is the only way to show true trust. Is any of this making sense. If God gave us the promise that Christians would be saved from all suffering……..don’t you think that everyone would become Christians purely for this benefit…….yet then the focus is “what can I get”, it becomes a self-serving purpose for getting saved. My Christ would not feel loved by this. We would not be choosing him, but choosing “non-suffering”. But it is when my grandma dies and I can proclaim, “It is all part of your good and perfect plan, your glory is worth our sacrifice!” It is when I lose my job and I can say, “You know the plans you have for me lord, plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me a future”. It’s when I can feel the bitter cold of loneliness to the depths of my bones and it seems that I am at the bottom of everyone’s list and I can smile and say, “The lord is my joy and my strength, I will base me life not on fading lights, but on an everlasting one.” It is then and only then that he feels my love and devotion to him. By not letting “suffering” differentiate the Christian life from the non-Christian life, Christ is ensuring that we are indeed choosing him only because he is our Lord, not for any benefit we can gain. Isn’t heaven a gift enough, isn’t joy for now a gift enough, yet I have the audacity to ask God why, why can’t I be rich, why can’t I be saved from the perils of life. How can I ask for more than Jesus asked for himself. He certainly wasn’t saved from any perils. Who am I? So, the point I guess is……bad things will happen to good people. But it is Romans 8:18 that sheds some perspective on this for me, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” This is heaven people! We could pile up the hardest most persevering times in our lives, throw cancer on there, throw death on there, through break-ups on there, throw rejection, abuse, disappointment, persecution, every bad thing on that pile and it is not even WORTH comparing to the glory he will reveal to us in that day. That makes my soul jump for joy, literally inside my body, it’s jumping! Haha! And before Paul was finished with this little speech he added verses 24 and 25, “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have we wait for it patiently.” So our hardships here on earth will give us an even greater hope for heaven. If he were to give us a perfect life here, what would we have to hope for??? But instead we get to wait for it patiently and anticipate the day we will have no suffering, the day when only GOOD things happen to good people!