Be Still

Why do terrible things happen?

After the service I stuck around to ask Pastor Walt a question. He was currently putting up the extra chairs, and I tried to help him as much as I could by sliding the chairs towards him.
             " Oh, you don't have to do that," he says while grabbing the last chair that needed to be put up.
             " I don't mind," I mumble not sure how to start our conversation. He ushered me to a black, leather couch in the center, and we both sat down.
             " So, what's up, Joshua, I haven't seen you around much," he says while crossing his arms across his chest.
             " Yeah, with the accident and everything, I've just been,  I don't know," I say with a shrug.
             " Well, you been through something hard, so it's to be expected.I know everything's been crazy, but have you been doing okay?"
             " Yeah, I've been doing good, better than Jack."
             " Have you seen him?"
             " Yeah, he looked.......bad," I say at loss of words.
              " So what's been on your mind lately," he asks. My heart thankful for the change in subject, guilt has been eating me up, taking me piece by piece.
             " I, um, I wanted to ask you a question first."
             " Yeah shoot," he says nodding fiercely.
             I took a deep breath before asking," If we're Christians why does bad stuff happen to us. I mean God said He is our protector and rescuer right?"
            He paused for a second, I assumed to gather his thoughts, before answering,"Good question, and many of us Christians don't exactly know why bad things happen to us. Like I don't have all the answers," He begins to explain.  
"Part of it is because we live in a sinful world, and God gives each of us a choice to do good or bad. Sometimes people choose bad and their one bad action could cause a ripple effect of harm on others, " He explains.

"Furthermore, as Christians we must remember that God is good, and He only gives good things. James 1-16-17 " Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.' He doesn't bring bad things. His thoughts aren't full of ways to hurt us, but to help us. He allows trials into our lives to shape us, but God will never allow us to go through something without reason. There will always be a reason as to why we go through something. Now will we always know why, no," he shakes his head.

"But in that case remember Isaiah 55:8-9
'"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."'

" Sometimes we have to accept that and trust God, which can be a hard thing to do, but that's when we have to pray for endurance and perseverance. It doesn't mean we can't ask God why something has occurred, but it's more important to focus on the how. Like, how am I going to get through this."

" Now at times will we eventually see why we went through something? Yes! For example," he searches around for a response," sometimes breakups happen, and it can be heartbreaking. However they happen to help us see how bad that person was for us and when we take a look back we'll see how poisonous they were. "

     He pauses to think.

" Think of the troubles in this life as growing pains," he says.

" Growing pains," I question.

" Yes, growing pains," he grins.

" You know when a baby is teething they cry a lot because they are in pain," he asks rhetorically, however I still nod.

" The pain they're in is only temporary because once the pain is gone they have a new set of teeth. They can now eat. They have grown, or matured from a baby that only ate applesauce to one that can snack on little cereal puffs."