The other day I posted a link to a video titled Jocelyn. (Jocelyn attends the same church that my sons attend in California.) I didn’t say much about it at the time, but wanted to talk more about it now. I love this story’s authenticity.
The thing is, sometimes we make Christianity too simplistic – as in suggesting that once a person comes to faith in Christ, Jesus will solve every problem. Well, Jesus can solve every problem, for sure, but He doesn’t always do so in this life. We are still human. Pain is still real. And sometimes, like Job, we question why? And we cling to what we know is true.
When Job (read his story here) lost his wealth, his family, and finally his health, he did a lot of groaning and complaining. He could not understand why so many tragedies had befallen him. He had always done his best to obey his Creator, yet his enemies and evil men who surrounded him were in better shape than he was.
But one thing Job knew to be true, one fact that he clung to through it all was this – he said, “Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! (God heard that prayer!) Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (He clung to this truth.)
Jocelyn lost her mom to a drunk driver, a tragedy that defies reason. Yet she is clinging to Jesus, to hope. She doesn’t have it all figured out – and neither do we. Someday we shall see Jesus though, and then we will understand. In the meantime, we cling to the truth Jesus taught us, by faith believing what we can’t see. That might mean we struggle in this life. In fact, we can be sure of that.
In any case, I thought a little explanation was in order. I hope I never give readers the impression that becoming a Christian means all of life’s problems will be solved. On the contrary. Many more problems may just be beginning! But “we have this treasure in jars of clay” – the treasure of Jesus in spite of our humanness.
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Selah~
