I was looking the other day at my childhood friend Mick’s mother, Sherry, on Facebook. She was giving a hug to my other friend Bob. Bob and Mick and I and others used to hang out. It was funny because Bob now has a white beard and a potbelly. He looks just like a boyfriend that Sherry had a long time ago. And Sherry actually looks younger than Bob! Did any of us know then how hard life could be while we were playing Dungeons and Dragons or going to the Kinks concerts? Adult level problems seemed far away back then.

I know we have all seen the poster of Footprints at one time or another. The one that is about the person who only sees one set of footprints when life was at its hardest because that was the time that God carried them. Yes, life can be brutal. Regardless of how hard life can be though, I can think of something that is even harder, especially for men. This thing is harder than experiencing the deaths of friends and family, harder than being fired from jobs, harder than being rejected by those you love and who you thought loved you. This thing that is harder than all those seems to be taking those problems to God.

Perhaps the problem is that the way that God wants us to respond to problems and hardships seems too bizarre sometimes.

Pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44)? Get real! Trust that He exists and that He is good and that He is with us? Come on! If God was God and He was good then I would not be in this situation to begin with! Don’t seek revenge and let God deal with someone (Deuteronomy 32:35). Yeah, like that will work! The meek shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5)? Maybe, but ‘they will never get its mineral rights” (J. Paul Getty). The laws and ways of dealing with the world that Yeshua and the rest of the Bible talk about seem upside down.

It is counter-intuitive to do these things. However, many of the things we humans seem to come up with that seem so sensible don’t work! Remember the episode of Seinfeld where George Costanza decides to do everything opposite of how he normally does? When his date wants him to come upstairs at her place, he ruses to go. He goes to an interview with the Yankees and chews out George Steinbrenner and gets the job! Sometimes, we need to trust that we do not have all the answers and we need to trust the experts, in this case, God and how He made the universe.

The secret that I have learned in these situations is that it ALL depends on Him. And I am going to give all the work to Him. God knows, I do not want to bring things to Him. I do not want to follow His way. I don’t have the power to trust Him or His way of doing things. I have to pray, ‘God, if you want me to follow you, then YOU are going to have to make ME want that! There is no way, I can want this or believe it on my own! You are going to have to reveal yourself to me for me to believe in you! You are going to have to….give….me….faith… if…you…want… me …. to….have…faith!

You have to understand, that God is the beginning and the end. Only He is the Alpha and the Omega. It does not start with us. It does not end with us. We do have personal responsibility but God is the one who wants a relationship with us and He wants us to bring our problems to Him and He will give us the power to do so if we ask.

 I John 4:10 –This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

————————W.