White Chocolate Mocha

What’s up guys and gals! Just enjoying a beautiful day here in Athens. It feels great outside; not too hot and not too cold.  I spent this morning at one of my favorite coffee shops, Jittery Joe’s. I got a lot work done for some upcoming events, while sipping on a white chocolate mocha. Be sure to check our dates and make sure to come out to a show if we’re near your area!

I’ve been reading a great book lately called Reaching for the Invisible God. It’s a great read and I would encourage everyone to read it. It’s definitely making me rethink some things. A few weeks ago we were at a show and Shane got to the portion of the show where he opens up the time for prayer. He mentioned that if anyone had been struggling with different things in their life and was to the point of giving up, to raise their hands. I was deeply moved, to the point of tears, by the number of hands that went up. It seems to me that everywhere we go, we find more and more people (from students to adults) ready to give up on God and themselves! Who can blame them? I’ve been so far in a valley at times, that I too have wanted to give up. The pressures of life sometimes seem so unbearable! We cry out to God to answer our prayers, but what happens when we get silence? What happens when the “Why” is left unanswered? Don’t misunderstand me; I’m not saying God doesn’t answer prayers, because he does! The Bible also gives us accounts where God is silent. Look at how many times in Psalms where David and the other writers cry out, “How long Lord will you hide Your face from me?”

So what am I trying to say? What words could I possibly give to a father that has lost his job and kids in this economy? What do you say to a mother that has lost a child to an untimely accident or to a brother that has lost a sister? What do you say to the students that feel that the only way to release the pain they feel is to cut themselves or take their lives? To those outside the faith that look at the world around us and ask, “How could a loving God allow this?” Or to those that are of the faith and ask, “Why does our loving God allow this?”  Remember, Job often wrestled with these same questions. Job was reminded that, “no time-bound human, living on a rebellious planet, blind to the realities of the unseen world, has the ability to comprehend such answers (Yancey)” Does God cause these hardships? No! We can see it as a wonderful demonstration of human freedom exercised on a fallen planet (Yancey). Faith in God is difficult at times, but faith offers the option of continuing to trust God even while accepting the limits of our humanity, which means accepting that we cannot answer the “Why” questions (Yancey).

My prayer is that you can take a step in the trust direction despite the pain, silence, or confusion. The only thing more difficult than having a relationship with an invisible God is having no such relationship (Yancey). Philip Yancey, the author of the book I’m reading, tells a story of a Scottish preacher in the last century that lost his wife suddenly, and after her death he preached an unusually personal sermon. He admitted in the message that he did not understand this life of ours, but still less could he understand how people facing loss could abandon faith. “Abandon it for what!” he said, “You people in the sunshine may believe the faith, but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else.” Find hope my friends in knowing He’s only “ONE STEP AWAY” (hint: listen to the words of that song)