Then God

What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.  (Job 3:25)
In my anguish I cried out to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free.  (Psalm 118:5)

Our church family has experienced our fair share of loss and struggle recently, both shared and carried in silence.  The need faced by our loved ones and ourselves seems at times to be overwhelming.  It's strange to me, but I have always been struck by the ease with which the sun keeps shining and the birds keep singing despite the magnitude of tragedy in life.  It's not that the world should stop spinning just because of one person's woe, but somehow it seems that we should hear a sympathetic groan from the creation in which we roam.

One of the most uncomfortable Bible study exercises I've engaged in was to list my greatest fears - the things that, if they happened, would surely destroy me.  The point of the exercise was not to fill me with a sense of panicked doom, but rather to challenge me to answer the question, "What then?"  If my Number One Greatest Fear were to come true, what then?  It's hard to go there mentally and emotionally, and yet many of us arrive there at some point in life, or at least flirt with the fringes.  So what happens when, as artist Natalie Grant sings, the sacred has been torn from your life and you survive?

Isaiah 61:1 tells us, "He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted."  The bigger picture is that God has a plan for all our lives, a perfect will to be accomplished in ways that are beyond our understanding.  But today, here and now in this life, we can fully understand and experience the perfect comfort that only Jesus can provide.  We've been promised both suffering and a comforter and healer for that suffering.  Natalie Grant continues, If hope is born of suffering, if this is only the beginning, can we not wait for one hour watching for our Savior?  This is what it is to be loved and to know that the promise was that when everything fell, we'd be held.

Are you hurting right now?  Absorb this "note from God," penned by Beth Moore in her marvelous study, Breaking Free: 

My child,

I loved you before you were born.  I knit you in your mother's womb and knew what your first and last words would be.  I knew every difficulty you would face.  I suffered each one with you.  Even the ones you didn't suffer with me.  I had a plan for your life before you were born.  The plan has not changed, no matter what has happened or what you have done.  You see, I already knew all the things concerning you before I formed you.  I would never allow any hurt to come into your life that I could not use for eternity.  Will you let Me?  Your truth is incomplete unless you view it against the backdrop of my truth.  Your story will forever remain incomplete... until you let Me do what only I can do with your hurt.  Let Me perfect that which concerns you. 

I remain,
Your Faithful Father

So...When our greatest fears are realized, what then?  Then God.