What's Love Got To Do With It?

How many times have I wondered how on earth God could claim to love me? What does love have to do with divorce? With home repossession? With sexual molestation? Blinding pain of heart or body??? I've looked into eyes that screamed despair and hopelessness while being asked how God could do this? As I told a dear friend who has been viciously attacked and defamed that it was a valid question to ask, I knew I'd better have a "real" answer. There was a time I would have answered her with some platitude or overworked Bible verse (Romans 8:28 comes to mind) because I couldn't REALLY answer her from my heart...from experience.
During some very bleak, dark times while first grappling with my failing health, I truly wanted to know the answer. From my perspective at that time, God seemed to me to be literally destroying me...how is that love??

But it is. As a Christian, I believe God rules over all...all circumstances, results, actions...ALL. Ultimately, you must determine if God is really GOD...does He rule? If you answer "yes" then EVERYTHING comes from LOVE for the Bible states, "God is love.". But it certainly seems contradictory when really tough things happen. But it still is true...love permeates a Christian's life from God's perspective. The trick is learning to look from His point of view.

Consider Jesus. Called a "bastard" (when that was a major social stigma); had a mere 12 followers that included a traitor; had a failed ministry in three short years and then was unjustly convicted of a capital crime and was tortured to death! Then, to top it all off, Jesus died with sin accounted to Him, not His own, but ours! That meant that God the Father could justly leave his soul in eternal death...that's why Jesus commended His soul to His Father on the cross; it wasn't clear what Eternity held for Him!!! But we know He was resurrected back to a sinless life, and now we can have an eternal, sinless life, too!!! WHY? Because, Jesus went through the black, dark times trusting His Father in all things. And out of that trust in the love of God the Father, untold millions of souls will live eternally with Him. Who could imagine so much failure and tragedy could have such incredible results? Well, I can and I'm learning to absolutely trust the love of God no matter how much "reality" says He doesn't care. Because I know Love has Everything to do with it, Do you?

Keep pressing on!