Love Among the Ruins
by
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Chapter 7
When No One Can Tell You Why
I promised you we would get back to the why-questions. The events of life that force us to ask "why" can leave us shaken. Unanswered why-questions can make us falter in our faith or even bring us to the brink of fading faith, can’t they?
As one friend has expressed to me, "I feel like I’m walking along a knife edge, staring down into an abyss on either side, wobbling and teetering on the edge of a precipice. I could so easily let myself slip off the edge away from faith in God."
She knows there is only a gray fog of nothingness there (over the edge, away from faith in God), but at least in nothingness she hopes her mind will stop asking questions. Or she must abandon her why-questions and jump off the other side, trusting that God will somehow answer her desperate leap toward stubborn faith and respond to her with such love that her unanswered questions will--not matter? No. Our why-questions will always matter, answered or unanswered. She will simply be given peace to wait for the answers, to wait until she sees the whole picture.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Why does God allow bad people to use us and hurt us?
Why doesn’t God change those bad people?
Why does God allow sickness and physical pain and disease and death, even what we would call premature death that we aren’t prepared to face?
It seems like God heals some people. Why doesn’t He heal everyone who prays to Him and asks for His help?
Why doesn’t God intervene and protect us, or the ones we love, from dangers and temptations and evil influences? He does, sometimes.
Why not all the time?
Why not every time?
Why does it seem like some people hear personally from God, hear His voice, and yet He remains silent when others beg to hear from Him?
How can we be expected to accept that God loves us, without these why-questions being answered?
You will remember part of the answer to these why-questions that I gave you already. Sometimes bad things happen to good people because of the choices we make. The difficult circumstances you and I might be living through can sometimes be directly traced back to wrong, selfish choices we made somewhere in the past. Then we must live with the consequences of our foolish, rash, or immature behavior.
Sometimes bad things happen to good people because good people make bad choices. So far, this is the easiest answer to accept when we tackle our why-questions. Why? Been there, done that. All of us.
Now it gets tougher. Good people (innocent from any wrong choice of their own) can be hurt or attacked by evil people who are carrying out the action of their own bad choices, and the good people are victims of someone else’s evil behavior. You’ve got a painful, personal memory resurfacing in your mind right now, don’t you? Or headlines from today’s news flash into focus as you’re reading this. Every day, any day. It happens all the time. Why? If God is all-powerful and all-knowing (which He is), why doesn’t He stop it? Why doesn’t He intervene? Why does He just let those things happen?
I don’t know. But I’m convinced of this: I will know. Someday, I will see all things clearly. There will come a day in my life when I’ll understand the things that don’t seem to make sense to me now, the things that make me scratch my head in bewilderment and sometimes make me want to kick the wall in frustration, or the things that make me fall on my face in grief and sorrow and tears with no explanation for now.
God has promised: "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then [when we get to heaven] face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known" (I Corinthians 13:12). I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known! Hold onto that thought. We’re coming back to it.
Why not now? Why don’t we have all the answers now? The answer to that question may lie in our answer to a few other ones:
What difference would it make to you if you knew all the answers?
How would this change your life?
How would you handle knowing all the answers to your why-questions?
What would you do with the answers?
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About the Book
"Does anybody love me?" This is the question Linda and her husband Dominique hear most often. Whether they’re living and teaching in America or in Europe, the language changes but the question is the same, coated with an unmistakable layer of heartbreak and regret. Staring into eyes haunted with an I’m-afraid-to-trust-anymore plea for assurance, it’s easy to feel helpless and wonder what to say. This book gives a simple answer: "Yes, God loves you. He always has!"
Your life may have been damaged by the words and actions of others. My friend, you must find Love Among the Ruins! The past may seem catastrophically damaged and relationships may appear irreparable. Only God is able to do what is impossible in human terms: pick up the scattered, broken fragments strewn like debris around you, reconnect disjointed relationships, and rebuild a life worth living. Only God can do such things! But first, you must turn to Him. Linda Azema weaves a tapestry of God’s love for you, using each chapter to reveal another side of His character and Father-God’s great desire to repair, rebuild, and restore your heart.
About the Author
The cross-cultural experience of an American living in France, England, and Spain – along with extensive travel for work and teaching throughout the rest of Europe – has permitted Linda to see life from a fresh perspective. The insight gained has added unusual personal depth to her skills as a communicator and teacher.
The demands for public speaking and teaching seminars on marriage, finance, parenting, and work ethics from a Christian perspective led Linda and her husband Dominique to found "Image Ministries." From a past involving drugs, sexual immorality, and physical and mental abuse, Linda shares hope that lifts barriers to help others find strength to live, courage to love, and the return of quiet joy in the process.