I feel as though I dont have legs to stand on. I feel like I am falling again and again, running in this nonstop loop of disobedience, and I cant take it anymore. I know that my soul cries out for me to do the right thing. And I try. But all too often I try by myself, when, in all actuality, I cant do ANY of this alone. I dont have the perserverance, strength or nature to ever be perfect. Luckily for me, I have a God that is faithful and just to cleanse me of all unrighteousness, and He already has! He still loves me even with all my sin, and its clear to me that He does. Because He sent His only son, to not only live in me, but to DIE for me. Without Him my hope in any salvation would be shattered. Because there is no possible way any of the good things Ive done in my life (if there is any) could outweight the bad. I should be learning true God worship now that my pride is shattered. I think no matter how hard it is to face the reality that Im so far from perfection is, it isthe most amazing thing that could happen to me. I should no longer be afraid to admit that I struggle with my fear, and wrestle with my pride. Casue now that I feel so far from God, so small and so much like a failure, I can throw my pride aside and let myself become humble enough to ask for forgiveness. God loves me, and because of this… Nothing else should matter.
At school I have been asked this question alot. Its been a difficult thing to answer and respond to. But I’ve been looking into it, and I now think I have a little more to say about the subject.
1. God didn’t create evil. We did. God gave Adam and Eve free will, he gives us all free will. And we chose to corrupt it by bringing evil into the world. Many people ask why God does not just destroy evil all together, but He has given us free will. I mean think of it this way, if a barbie says “I love you” how meaningful is that? It’s because we are free that we get meaningfull love, authentic love. God didnt want to program us to love him. How meaningfull is that? Not very. He probably could have forseen that we would disappoint him, but that is how we feel going into friendships right? We know that the friend has the possibility to hurt us, but we chose to be in relationship with them anyway. Thats like God. He knew that we might hurt Him, but He saw the benefits of our friendship outweighing the hurt.
2. God doesn’t wipe out evil all together because He uses it to get our attention. To bring some good out of it. CS Lewis once said “God uses pain as a megaphone to speak to our deaf world” God brings so many people to Him through pain! And thats not all. He brings good out of our suffering. Don’t believe me? How about Jesus? He suffered so much on the cross for us, yet, His pain gave us eternal life, and relationship with God! How cool is that!
So no, God never intended for the world to be evil. But good can come from it. We just need to search for God when we are in pain instead of yelling at Him. Maybe then, we will start to see change.
En la escuela me han hecho esta pregunta muchas cosas. Ha sido una cosa difícil de responder y responder. Pero he estado buscando en ella, y yo ahora creo que tengo un poco más que decir sobre el tema.
1. Dios no creó el mal. Lo hicimos. Dios dio a Adán y Eva, sin voluntad, él nos da a todos el libre albedrío. Y se optó por lo corruptos por traer el mal al mundo. Muchas personas se preguntan por qué Dios no se limita a destruir el mal todos juntos, pero él nos ha dado libre albedrío. Me refiero a que de esta manera, si una barbie dice: “Te amo”, lo significativo es que? Es porque somos libres que nos encanta meaningfull, el amor auténtico. Dios no quería que nos programa para amarlo. ¿Cómo es que meaningfull? No mucho. Probablemente podría haber previsible que se le decepciona, pero así es como nos sentimos de entrar en la amistad ¿no? Sabemos que el amigo tiene la posibilidad de hacernos daño, pero se optó por tener una relación con ellos de todos modos. Eso es como Dios. Sabía que podría hacerle daño, pero no vio los beneficios de nuestra amistad prevalezca sobre los heridos.
2. Dios no acabar con el mal todo junto, porque Él lo utiliza para llamar nuestra atención. Para traer algún provecho de ella. CS Lewis dijo una vez: “Dios usa el dolor como un megáfono para hablar a nuestro mundo sordo” Dios trae tanta gente a Él a través del dolor! Y eso no es todo. Él saca lo bueno de nuestro sufrimiento. No me cree? ¿Qué hay de Jesús? Él sufrió mucho en la cruz por nosotros, sin embargo, su dolor nos ha dado vida eterna, y la relación con Dios! ¿No es genial!
Así que no, Dios nunca quiso que el mundo sea malo. Pero bueno puede salir de ella. Sólo tenemos que buscar a Dios cuando estamos en dolor, en lugar de gritarle. Tal vez entonces, vamos a empezar a ver el cambio.
Every leap I take,
I am plunged further and further into darkness.
But I cant turn back now.
Not after what I have done, or where I have been.
So I keep going into the black.
Not yet fearing the new rough road ahead.
However, my eyes do not adjust to the darkness,
And soon I am stumbling over obsticles that I am blinded by.
Staggering, I continue, bruised and broken,
Down the dark road that awaits me.
Its not long before I hit a wall,
The path has lead me as far as I can go.
I feel my way along the wall,
Looking for a way through it,
or a way out.
But I come up with nothing.
My body collapses with exhaustion,
And I crumble, leaning against the wall for support.
How did I get here? What have I done?
No one can forgive me now.
I brace myself for death, the punishment I deserve,
But I am blinded by the light that starts peircing the darkness.
“My son! My sheep! Where are you?”
Its a voice I know all too well.
I hide my face in shame,
But even the shadows cannot hide me from the light.
He runs to me, arms wide open,
And He falls beside me, pulling me into His forgiving embrace.
“Come home!” He cries, and I cry too,
Because He obiously does not know what things I have done.
Words cannot yet express my regret, and I turn my face away.
“I LOVE YOU” He cries, “I KNOW WHAT YOU DID, BUT I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU’VE DONE!”
Suddenly I am hosted onto His back,
And carried back to the light.
Surronded once again by the love I once knew.
How much different would life be if our focus was not the things here on earth? Would we care less about material objects and instead start to care about what is really inside us? Would we see girls with higher self esteem? Less suicide rates? Or would we possibly see the world trying to lift us up instead of tear us down? Sadly, the reality is that many people are more focused on other things. One day, we will not be here to enjoy the things of earth, we will move on, die and go to our eternal home. Heaven. What do we need to do to prepare ourselves for our eternal home? Well, to start off we need to either accept or deny that God is creater and Lord of the world. Once our eternal destiny is decided we need to start embracing some huge truths. One of which is that we will outlive our time in heaven more than on earth. Most of our time will be spent there. So shouldnt that be the one thing we aim to make better? Our eternal home? So how do we make that better. Well, in the bible God says that we can gain eternal rewards in heaven. I was reading Luke 6 last night (which if you havent read, I would highly recommend.) And it talks about things we can expect rewards for and things we shouldnt. One of the verses asks if we should expect a reward for loving the loveable, but not the unloveable. Should we expect a reward for helping people when we beenfit for it? Imagine a world living towards eternal destiny, with eternal values. Material possisions would no longer matter, which would bring up girls self esteem and overall well being of people.
Its time we step across the line into the life God called us to live. And that first step is living a looking into the eternal life God has planned for us.
