Welcome to another counselor's corner. I am sorry for the lack of updates recently, I will be back more frequently as the summer of '05 wears on. The title of my article today is simply WHY? Christians hear this question alot when they are challenged on their beliefs. Why do you believe what you believe?
Why do we celebrate Jesus' birthday on December 25th when there is no official record of His birth? Why do we have communion where we "Eat the Body" and "Drink the Blood" of our savior? There are alot of "WHY's" in the Christian faith. To those people who ask why, I am only going to answer that with one word. Faith. We have faith that Jesus was born, we have faith that when we take communion, that we are indeed celebrating and remembering the Last Supper that Jesus and His disciples ate together. Jesus said that this is my body, and this is my blood. We have faith that the Bible is true and Jesus came here to fulfill, and bring the Word of God to life. Now, that said, I want to really talk to believers in this article.
Don't we as Christians ask "WHY?" alot too? Why do bad things happen to us? We believe in Jesus, isn't that good enough to not be beaten, shot and persectuted? Why are there people dying of hunger everyday? Why did my family member get cancer? Why was this child taken from his or her mother? Why is it that we see the crooked and the wretched of this world getting their way and we struggle? Why? Why? Why? Well my brothers and sisters, this is one time that I don't know the answer. I don't even have a clue. Matter of fact, I believe that when we get to Heaven, that we are going to all be around God's ankles asking why why why like a bunch of three year olds. Here is what I do know to be true. God is in control. That is the one constant in this world that you can count on no matter what.
Recently, I lost a dear family member. The members of my church that read this will know this already, but one of my cousins was murdered. She was run down and killed on the highway as she and the driver of the Harley Davidson they were on were trying to get away from the man who chased them down. She left behind six kids, a granddaughter, and several other family members that are all still in shock. I found myself asking why. Alot. I am still asking why. Why did God feel it neccessary to take her from this world and leave us all greiving so much? Why did he take a mother of six and leave them all angry and confused? The fact of the matter is this, God did not do this. Someone else did. Someone took it upon themselves to see to it that he would get his petty revenge and did not care about anything else. This is not a good situation to be in for anyone involved. None of us understand why it happened. As I think about it, no one is supposed to know why it happened. God is in control. God had a reason for this, and we are not supposed to know what it is. In a song, Natalie Grant says that, "the promise was when everything else failed, that we be held." Do you know the comfort of being held by Jesus? Knowing that He is weeping as we are when bad things happen to us? My prayer is that my family knows this. When all is said and done, we have a choice to stand back up, dust ourselves off and continue to follow the Lord as he loves us more than anyone else. Do we make this choice? My prayer is that we all make this decision. Please keep the family of Terri Lynn Gresko in your prayers. We all need the comfort of our Lord, and I hope that we all find it. Thank you for listening.
