BLAST FROM THE PAST


sigh..how time flies..

Jesus wept.
i recently watched the movie hotel rwanda. i couldn't help but tear up when i realized that it was so much more than "just a movie." this is stuff that actually happened, and here i am, on the other side of the world, without a clue and without a care.

you know, after watching the movie, the question that i had heard countless times before echoed through my own mind:

God, why?
how could such a loving God allow stuff like this to happen? how could anyone with such unbelievable power simply sit back and watch such atrocities? if watching a simple movie like this could break our cold hearts, how much more must it break His heart?

Jesus wept.
- John 11:35

this is the shortest verse in the Bible, but it reveals so much about God's heart for us. our God truly is a loving God.

that's why i know that for each and every one of mankind's transgressions, it hurts Him so much. each sin is another nail through His body.

i imagine Him watching the evening news every night. the reporter talks of yet another rape. Jesus wept. another murder. Jesus wept. another hate crime. Jesus wept.

okay, sure, so maybe none of us sin to that extreme. allow me to put it in more practical terms:

we lied. Jesus wept. we were selfish. Jesus wept. we hated each other. Jesus wept. we ignored Him. Jesus wept.

Ask me how many times my heart has been broken...and I'll tell you to look at the sky and count the stars.
- Author Unknown

God cares about this world. probably more than we will ever know or be able to comprehend. i wouldn't be surprised if God was the author of the above quote. we each break his heart so many times every single day, and yet we still expect Him to never allow ours to be broken. we cast Him aside whenever our lives get too busy or we don't feel like we need Him, and yet we still expect Him to always be there for us. we are such imperfect people, and yet we still expect Him to fix all of the world's problems.

How else but through a broken heart may Lord Christ enter in?
- Oscar Wilde

so you and i ask yet again, "why does God allow so much bad stuff to happen?" i know it's the "Christian" thing to say, but i find that i can only sleep at night believing wholeheartedly that there truly is a purpose in everything that happens. every joy, every tragedy..simply, everything.

i don't have all the answers -- actually, i don't even have most of them. i admit that i will never understand God's reason in anything that happens here on this earth, but i know that He knows best.

The majesty of God in itself goes beyond the capacity of human understanding and cannot be comprehended by it... We must adore its loftiness rather than investigate it, so that we do not remain overwhelmed by so great a splendor.
- John Calvin

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or wewary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
- Isaiah 40:28

we live in a broken world, i think we all know that. but we can't keep using that as an excuse for our actions, or sometimes, our lack thereof. God asks us to be in this world, not of this world. let's stop making Jesus weep.