Understanding the Hard Stuff

If I have learned anything throughout the past year, it has been people we will have unexpected losses in our life. It’s just going to happen. The only thing that we can do to come close to understanding why these things happen is through God‘s word.

There are several examples of unexpected loss this past year in my life beginning with losing my great-grandpa on my birthday last March. As my family and I watched him slowly fade from being himself over the course of about two weeks, it became more and more difficult to process why this had to happen the way it did. Some people get over their grief and some don’t. I am not sure where I will end up being landing between grieving and not grieving, but I will always have a reminder that Grandpa passed away on my birthday. That will happen every year the rest of my life. The meaning of my birthday changed in an instant.

There are other examples. One is watching a friend that I grew up with who has had to watch his mom fight a very difficult battle with brain cancer. Also, my school district and classmates have had a unbelievably tough year. One of our friends who was just excited about life every day passed away in a tragic accident. We recently watched a couple of brothers lose their dad in a car accident. We have also watched as another young man in our school was recently diagnosed with a very aggressive type of leukemia.

I feel like I am too fast to blame God for these types of things. But I am still looking for answers to all the “why” questions. I have recently found diving into Scriptures has been a source of strength for me, even when it's hard to do. A scripture that has been heavy on my heart has been Jeremiah 29:11-13 which says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” If you break this Scripture down, there are three promises that we are given.

"For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me." - Jeremiah 29:11-13

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” God promises us in this verse that through all things we are going through individually, as a school district, or a community, there is hope in the plans that God has for us. Webster’s dictionary describes hope as “a desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment”. Lamentations 3: 21-23 tells us this, "Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”

Promise two is found in verse twelve where we read, “In those days when you pray, I will listen.” The promise in this verse, is that no matter what we are going through, God will listen to us. Not only will He listen, but he wants to listen to us. 1 John 5:14 says, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." If we read in between the lines of these verses, I believe it is also telling us that we do not need to be ashamed or scared of things when we talk to God.

We can find promise three in verse thirteen. It states that if we search for Jesus with our whole heart that and we will find him. Webster’s dictionary defines wholeheartedly as “completely and sincerely devoted, determined, or enthusiastic”. This means that we cannot just go through the motions. The effort with which we seek Jesus matters. We are supposed to pursue him with our whole heart, everything that is in us. That’s when, and only when, we will find Jesus in the middle of our struggles.

...the strategy stays the same - I must go after God with my whole heart.

I know I’m young and I have a lot of things yet to learn in this life. But I'm thankful that I have learned from a young age that in the best days of my life and in my worst days, the strategy stays the same – I must go after God with my whole heart. That’s how I can confidently know that he will show me what he has planned for me and help me in understanding the hard stuff.