God's Abandonment

Like many of the Biblical characters, when we suffer or feel pain or have some tragedy in our lives, we will gripe and complain about God's absence. 
We will puff out our chests and say that we have spent years serving Him and now 'this' has happened; where is He when I need Him most?
Well, regardless of any current developments we may have in our lives, I can guarantee that God is not a God of injustice.
God's absence is not His abandonment.

There was once this teenage boy who grew very angry at his father. His dad wouldn't let him hang out with a certain group of boys, fearing he'd get into teenage trouble. His father made him do his homework and go to bed at appropriate times. 
Unknown to the Father, the boy he so dearly loved began using drugs and drinking during breaks at school. The very crowd his father feared was the one with whom he chose to associate.
One day the boy's Father found out and punished the son; in a fit of uncontrollable rage, the boy shot his father and he died.
Alone and in prison for the rest of his life, the boy called out through his sobs, 'I want my Father,' but his father was dead.

This is a parable of many modern people today; we've killed off any relationship with our Heavenly Father; so, when tragedy strikes, why should we be so surprised when He's not there?
Our relationship with God is paramount in our lives; it must be strong because Job proves to us that a cloud can descend on our lives at any time.

I have often heard and read on Bumper Stickers, 'Are you far from God?' Followed by, 'Who Moved?'
These are questions from Bumper Sticker Theology implying that if a person is in a tragic state and feels separated from God, the individual moved away from His will.
The problem with this idea is that people believe it; that would be OK if it was universally true - but it is not because Job shows us a time when God moved.

Theologians call this time, 'The Dark Night of the Soul;' it is a time of despair.
But this time does not mean a person is out of the will of God or is being punished. In fact, some of the greatest saints I have ever known have borne some of the greatest trials. 
Yet, I would remind you that if you find yourself in that time of darkness, God is still Sovereign. If you are there and you have not sinned to be there, then God has ordained you to be there in that time.
Nothing can touch you without passing before the Throne of God.
Therefore, the most faithful thing you can do is bare the time and await for God to do what He always does with our trials - turn them into to something glorious.

In those times, I know from experience that it is hard to be patient and wait on God.
Jesus had that time of waiting as well - remember the Cross?
Martin Luther called the Cross, 'God struggling with God.' It was because Jesus struggled with the fact that God chose to look away and not intervene.
If Christ struggled with this, you and I will as well. 
It is in this time that our disappointment will not match our theology.

There are many spiritual giants in Scripture and in the world who have suffered and contended with God. Some of them came away without harm; some did not walk away at all and died as martyrs; still others, like Jacob, walked away with a limp for the rest of his life.
But all of them walked away with a greater understanding of what was happening and what the purpose beyond the suffering and pain actually was. 
And the message we receive is that we can throw on God our grief, our anger, our pain, our disappointment, our thoughts of betrayal and our bitterness and God will absorb them all.

The truth of the matter is that when Job complained to God about his feeling of abandonment, God had never been more present.
In our times of trial and suffering, the same is true.

One thing I can say about Job's struggle, in the end - Job Died Happy!
Now, there is always the argument that his restoration could never have replaced what was taken, but when God speaks to Job and reveals the 'Big Picture' of the universe, God's non-answer seems to satisfy the man who complained and cried to the Lord.
But before anything was restored, Job repented - all that had changed was Job's attitude.
In our times like that, maybe the best thing we can do is turn to God in repentance and faith, allowing the Holy Spirit to adjust our attitudes so that God actually has something to work with as we seek to have the veil removed.

Job and some of the other people in Scripture who triumphed, like found in Hebrews 11, give me a wonderful feeling of hope.
This is especially true because I feel that God has done so much in the last year in a miraculous way in my life. It is such a great feeling, a confirmation - that Christ, now more than ever, is worth risking everything in my life for, knowing it will be confirmed in eternity.

As for our present trials, Job died happy and Paul died a martyr as did 10 of the 11 Faithful Disciples. 
Therefore, I cannot predict what will happen in my life nor in yours; but I do know, regardless of what happens, it is going to end well because it will ultimately end before His throne.
With Job, I can agree - On the last day, on the earth, in my flesh, I will see God.
If I did not believe that, I would have abandoned the Christian faith long ago.

At the moment, that hasn't happened and the Prophet's visions are still not reality.
Swords are not yet plowshares and death is still stinging and swallowing; not the other way around.
As we live out this time, I have found that many Christians are simply homesick.

God hasn't abandoned us; we just fail to see Him in life as we should.
Every flower is a scent from the New Creation.
Every blessing is News from a Country we have yet to visit.
As for all the pain and misery in the world, Heaven promises to us a time of wholeness, pleasure and peace.
Without this hope, there is no hope on planet Earth.

Until next time, win one for the good guys!