Life can be a good experience for some, but others face more hardships. Recently, hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated many people. You just need to watch the news to see houses floating down rivers and flood waters pouring into homes. Severe weather is only one way life can hit hard. Others deal with a wide range of issues like life threatening or life altering health issues, financial problems, strained relationships, and grief after losing a loved one. When very bad things happen, it’s easy to look up at God and shout, “Help me!”
God loves each of us with a perfect love and desires our happiness. I don’t think God ever looks at someone and says, “This person needs more pain in their life.” However, we live in an imperfect world and suffering is always a possibility. We live in this imperfect world because of our original sin of pride. God didn’t intend life to be this way, but by following Jesus, we can navigate this world and still find happiness.
We have three ways to respond to life’s challenges. We can get angry and fight back, ask for help, or give up. I think we’ve all been through all of those emotions before and perhaps the best solution is a combination of all three. There’s definitely a right time to fight. Someone diagnosed with cancer should pursue every possible treatment as long as they can. It’s also good to resign yourself in certain circumstances and accept the truth of a situation. Sometimes I feel like I’m swimming in the ocean of life and other times I feel like the current of life is carrying me in a certain direction. If I fight that current too hard, I may exhaust myself and drown. It’s always a good time to ask God for help. Asking God for help shows that we aren’t all-powerful and it reinforces our need and desire to have Him in our life.
We aren’t meant to tackle all of life’s problems and suffer alone. Jesus wants to be part of our lives. Unfortunately, many people try to manage on their own, believing they don’t need His help. Even if the problem we face ends up killing us, at least we held onto Jesus the whole time. When Jesus cured the blind man, He said, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “Your faith has cured you,” but says, “Your faith has saved you.” Our goal in life shouldn’t be to avoid hardships, but to handle them properly when they arise. Pain, suffering, and death are all inevitable things we’ll go through at some point, but Heaven is something we all need to attain. So take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you.
