Sometimes, I cry about people I have never met and will never meet this side of Heaven.  I cry about their pain, their circumstances, about what has happened to them.

And I pray for them, too.  Sometimes it’s all I can do.

On occasion, I am overcome with sorrow and my soul cries out, “God! Why did you let this happen?”

Actually, I think my soul has grown wiser and it no longer asks the Why question. Instead, it is asking, How do I pray?  What can I really do, here?

See, as I’ve said before here and there, we really shouldn’t ask the Lord of Heaven and Earth the Why question.  Even if he could answer it in a way we could grasp, could we really comprehend the significance of the answer?

I rather doubt it. Instead, he asks us to trust.  To trust him to pay back those who have willfully hurt the innocent.  To trust that even if someone has been wrongly treated, that they are still beloved.  To trust that he has not forgotten us.

People are messed up. It is my belief that almost every tragedy that can be prevented by man was planned to be prevented but that someone dropped the ball.  That God tried to get someone’s attention and he was ignored. That the perpetrator of a wrong was prompted to turn from the deed and s/he failed to do so.

Why does God allow this to happen?

That’s not the right question. Instead, ask yourself if you have been fully listening to and acting on prompts from the Almighty.

The question isn’t “Why, Lord God?”  It’s “What do you want me to do?”

Until everyone gets this – and I mean everyone – sorrow will continue to be visited on the innocent and we will still weep helplessly.

Tags: choices, God, Life, responsibility, sorrow