This is a re-post from 2009 as a Therapist at Imagine Hope Counseling Group.
In last week’s blog post, I mentioned a time when my family and I went thru some struggles that initiated significant growth in myself and in us as a family. I wanted to talk briefly about something I learned in my Faith during that difficult time.
I am often asked “Why is God allowing this to happen?” or “Why did God allow this to happen to me?” I am often posed the question from someone who wonders if they didn’t have enough faith. I never really understood this until I went thru something that caused me to ask this question.
To make a very long story short, 3 years ago I was 6 weeks pregnant and told by my Dr. that the heartbeat was faint but because it was so early, the baby may still be developing. He was “cautiously optimistic”. As I left the Dr.’s office, I felt so afraid and sad. My husband was surprised but seem so much more optimistic. He said we just needed to have faith and trust that everything would be fine. I immediately thought “Oh yeah! What am I thinking? God will totally take care of this. We just have to have faith.” I really didn’t worry that much over the 2 week period because I felt God had my back on this one. You can imagine my surprise when we went in for the ultrasound and the baby had not made it. I was so sad and couldn’t figure out WHY! Why had God let this happen? Why had he not stopped it or made the baby stronger? WHY??
I had some difficult conversations with God during that time. He also sent some amazing people, books, passages, and God winks that helped me, in my mind, understand.
See, just because we believe in God, we still live in a broken world where we are not immune to difficult things that happen to real people. If God sheltered us from pain because we believe in Him, everyone would believe. Not because of their faith but because they would want the shelter. And that is not faith.
Why does he let some things happen and some he does shield us from? I don’t know the answer to that. But what I found is that no matter what, he NEVER gives us more than we can bare and He will faithfully carry us thru anything we face. That is what I found my trust in- He will not always give me what I want or what I think is best, but he will see me thru whatever it is I am going thru. I thank God for that promise.
Thank you for reading.