When tragedy strikes you will find out what God means to you. A recent surprising and shocking health diagnosis landed two of my friends on either side of their religious views. Both of these friends believe in God without question. Both of these friends pray often and for all the right reasons. It matters not which one has the medical issue and which one is the friend left out in the balance of the unknown. One has embraced her spiritual side with new hope and new life and new light in her connection with God and everything positive. The other is slowly letting go of her hope and her faith and her trust in her connection with God and her positive attitude about life is fading away.
I think in life we all will face that challenge at one time or another. When the unbearable happens will we remain the same in our spiritual life ? Will we suddenly turn to God? Will we slowly turn away from Him? Some will actually get stronger, become more involved with His teachings and get closer to Him one on one. Some will start to shun Him, feeling weak and that He has let them down. Is a sudden interest in God when you are faced with a life altering illness any more or less wrong than if you turn away from Him when the struggle is too big?
I don't feel its ever a good idea to turn away from God for any reason. I would be lying to you if I told you I did not at times feel that way. There are many times I become overwhelmed with life issues and sometimes I go sit in church for hours and ask God for help and other times I refuse to even speak to God because I feel He has let me down. I never know when I will connect with him or when I will disconnect with him over any given situation. One thing for sure is I always go back to Him and continue to build on my relationship with him.
It's just very difficult when you feel your are doing all the right things and being the kind of Christian God wants you to be and bad things happen. You can feel defeated very quickly. You start to ask yourself what more can I do? How much more can I give? Where is my reward? It's very easy to start shutting everything you enjoy out of your life. It's almost an unconscious move really, you just start eliminating all things good from your life hoping that with each elimination things will get better. That you will find that one thing that must of irked God off to send misfortune your way.
That is human nature, as is embracing God, holding on to His beliefs stronger, gripping on to his teaching as if your life depended on it. Telling yourself I must not be praying enough, I must not be reaching out to others enough. God threw this at me to wake me up and help me realize I need to live a better Christian life. I need to be a better person. I need to prove to God that I believe in Him and I will live as He wishes us all to live.
There is no shame in finding your strength to carry on in times of troubles. There is no shame in stepping back from your spiritual side until you regain control of your faith. When I think about my two friends and the struggles they are facing, away from each other as well as with each other, my heart aches for their friendship. Even the best of friends will question if they are being as true to the friendship as the other. Again, human nature makes us that way.
Both will find their way with God, of that I am positive. Both will have a better relationship with God and each other when they get through their struggles. There faith will be stronger, their trust in God and each other will be enriched. their hope will one again be full-filled. They will be spiritually stronger than before but not as strong as after the next struggle is over.
We are imperfect human beings living in an imperfect world. There is not one of us any better than the other. Our relationship with God is a one on one romance and their will be ups, and there will be downs. God never leaves us, when we lean on Him, He is strong enough to hold our weight and when we lean away from Him, He is strong enough to pull us back. When you need to strengthen your faith for whatever reason, God will accept whatever you give him and when you need to back up and take a breather from God He will keep a loving hand on you to guide you back to Him when you are ready again.
