Where is God?

As I have mentioned, this is the worse year of my life and in one way the best year of my life.  I have lost a huge percent of my friends through death (cancer and old age), I have lost a daughter, alienated almost all of my living friends and my family, gone through a host of injuries, two heart attacks and from my viewpoint - failed God at what should have been a simple task with an odd twist to it.  And yes, I have asked where God is.  He is the power of this creation and yet quietly has been happy to see me do the best I can and pay a very great price for it.  He could blink, and all of it could have been so easily avoided.....

But, that was not the path he chose for me or those journeying along my path.  And I have grieved, not for myself, but for the loss of friends, family and choices my children have made this year.  So, where was God?

Jesus certainly understood grief.  He got to see His people turn on Him and kill Him.  He had plenty of opportunities to understand grief - somewhere along the line He lost his grandparents and his father.  And in John 11:28-37 we have the loss of a close friend......

The problem of suffering is that we view ourselves as being Job.  Life (God) has dumped on us, we are innocent, no one will sympathize, so just curse God and die - right?  For better or worse, Job did have some friends whom came and sat with him.  He had a wife that needed muzzled, well maybe most of his friends too!  But, no one did understand.  No one really knew what to say, or what they did was inappropriate to the situation.

Yeah, the last thing you really need when you are in pain are those around you whom would help by trying to minimize your pain - "well, at least ....."!  Having someone explain how God works is really a bad idea - since we do not really understand the how or why's of God's work in our lives - except in retrospect.  And don't you just love it when someone offers you worn out cliche's as salve for your wounds?  Yeah, all of Job's friends forgot that his situation was not about them or their comfort - it was about him and his pain.

Back to John's narrative of Jesus, He was moved or troubled in verse 33 at the death of His friend.  Anger, or He was mad at the situation.  Our anger should be towards death, for it is an unnatural occurrence in our lives.  And, the sin, which has brought death into existence in our lives.

And Jesus wept.  In verse 35 He cried and in verse 36, He was seen crying.  Yeah, real men do cry.  We know that David cried, as did all of the prophets and disciples as well.  It is okay to show emotion (unless you are me!  LOL!).  And to that end we need to accept and be real with our emotions at least around those we love.

So, where is God when I hurt?  Waiting for me to turn to Him for comfort.  Assuming of course that I was not the reason for the problem in the first place!  In which case, I need to work on my failure instead of wasting time weeping over my plight......