Take heart, remember the good

It’s hard to not feel so burdened when evil wins. When the cheating spouse leaves their partner and stays with the one they had an affair with. Multiple shootings and acts of violence in the news. People misusing power to control and harm their citizens driving them to extreme poverty and famine in some countries. The abuser who very recently abused gets away with what he’s done and is now happily married, suddenly “changed”. The children neglected and abused by parents or family members or daycare workers. The really ugly stuff that sometimes we end up coming face to face with whether that’s in our personal lives or it just seems like the news headlines have something detrimental to say on the daily. 

It is hard to remember the good when these things happen. It’s hard to not feel a ball of anger well up or sadness and if you’re a Christian say “I don’t get it God, why??? How could you allow this?”

When I’m more awake I’ll delve into this and have better scriptures to back up what I’m saying but for now I can’t sleep and only have words to share that have helped me as I wrestle with these thoughts, I hope that they can help someone out there reading this too.

First and foremost, if our souls feel unsettled by these things that’s because they weren’t made for this earth. They were made for Eden. They were made for peace. They were made to dwell with our Savior who loves us perfectly and we don’t have to act this way or that way for him to accept us. We can come to him as we are. But ever since the Fall of man, things went downhill, so *boom* sin enters the chat room. We’re all sinners and the world is broken but the hope is that Jesus is coming back and God will make a new heaven and new earth and there will be no more tears or suffering. And I get it, it gets complicated, if God made us and knew we were going to mess up so badly causing havoc for a while, why did He do it? Ok so He doesn’t cause the bad things that happen because all the bad things are because we are sinners who need Jesus to change our hearts and help us be better but somehow helps us be better without the exhaustion of striving, why do any of it? 

And honestly, I don’t have the answer for why He made us at all if He knew mankind was going to mess up so badly unleashing a big ole’ mess but when I find myself wondering that, I remind myself that He wouldn’t be God if I could figure Him out completely. 

He will right the wrongs though. And He is working even though we can’t see how. I’ve seen justice brought to things and redemption in the past here on earth, it just didn’t happen on the timeline I thought it would. So we can have hope that this isn’t all there is. 

There is something bigger and brighter ahead and we can take that hope we have that this day will come but still fight. Fight to be brave, fight to pursue kindness and integrity, fight to treat human beings as human beings, fight to see others who are different from us with a lense of compassion instead of criticism. Just because the world is fallen doesn’t mean we should give up on trying to shine a light in it. Doesn’t mean we should give up on efforts to make better laws, school systems, housing for the poor and look out for those that can’t look out for themselves. Our effort still matters and it does make a difference. 

So take heart, and remember the good. Pursue it.