May 9 Hope in the Midst of Despair

Psalm 22:1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?

When challenges of any kind come our way, we tend to want to know why, as if we have some special right to know why, as if He is not God Who owes us nothing. Then we want to know what He is going to do about it, to fix it, again as if He owes us anything.

Right now my child is very sick...oh, he is in his thirties, but he is still my child. He is in the hospital struggling to breathe, and when I saw him yesterday it brought back an incident when he was three months old and in the hospital for the first time since he was born, with a pneumonia -like illness. I watched through my own tears struggle to breathe, and I talked to God. I started with the please make him well and ended with the "He is yours. I want him well and here with me, but I trust him to you and I know with you is far better." He is here, so you know how that one ended.

But recently again I was tempted to try to bargain with God, and once again, and it is as hard or harder than it was years ago to get to the place where I say, "Your will, not mine.

The Psalms ends with note of assurance: "For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one, he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help."

So I find comfort in the reminder that God has not hidden his face from me. He is watching all of this unfold, and I believe He can and will intervene when it is for our long-term good. I have always known that God's love is perfect, and tempered with His omniscience and omnipotence. Because He is God, the outworking of His love is for our good, and in that, I will rest.