The Ways of God 

   “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways says the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  (Is 55: 8 – 9) 

   Wars, famine, and disease.  Why are they so prevalent?  Pain, suffering and death.  What purpose do they serve?  It’s so easy to get overwhelmed by worldly events and occurrences.  Tragedies occur every day and we don’t understand why.

   Why does God allow such things to happen?  Why do good people suffer while evil ones prosper?  Where is the justice in that?  I suspect that most Christians have, at some time, asked those questions

   We question God and why He allows such things to happen, but we don’t know His thoughts or His plans.  We can’t understand that the things we question are part of His plan and may result in a tremendous good in the future.

   The book of Job is an excellent lesson in humility and our inability to understand God’s ways. To Job’s complaints and questions God replied, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?" (Job 38: 4).  The ways of God were above the understanding of Job and they are above our understanding as well.  Perhaps in the next life we will understand or perhaps we won’t need to.

   I, like many others, have difficulty understanding why things happen as they do.  But I’m not able to know how each occurrence fits into the great plan of God.  I’ve found that it’s better to trust in God than to question His purpose.  Better to trust that all is as it should be even though I can’t understand.  To recognize that all things are better left to His plan. 

Your ways are so far above mine.

I don’t know Your reason.

I can’t know Your thoughts and Your plans.

I will, instead, trust in You in all things.

Amen