really, more like hourly or even minute by minute.
God is sovereign, even over evil and suffering. (Click the link to see RC Sproul Jr’s column about evil. Very interesting.)
Knowing this is important because it affects how we live our lives – in daily trust of God’s promises and His power to be faithful.
We all sin and make mistakes. Sometimes, those mistakes are big and affect other people in long-lasting ways. I think divorce is one of those (in most cases).
So, how do we do it? If we are suffering – how do we get up each day and keep going? To be really radical, how do we learn to boast in and delight in our suffering?
If we have made a big mistake and hurt a lot of people – what do we do next? How do we do what is right or do as much as we can to fix what we’ve broken?
This is one reason I like the daily tweets from Paul Tripp. He often reminds us how the attitude and perspective matter. Do I wallow in pity and fear and loneliness? Well, those feelings are real and can be pretty consuming. But I have to remind myself of the benefits I do have. And that happiness today is not the end goal of my existence. Eternal life, in the image of Christ, is what I am being shaped for.
I have found myself drawn to the topic of suffering and pain and God’s sovereignty in it lately, not because of anything I personally am going through, but because people I love and care for are in the grip of these things. I want to understand why they have to hurt so, and that there is some hope for them. Now and far in the future.
I remind myself that God is sovereign every day. I try to find the right words and actions to encourage and give that hope to my friends and family who need it.
And I am amazed at how many times a day I have to hand God my anger at David Navarro. I don’t hate him. I still love him and regret the pain he is causing and the pain he must be experiencing now and will experience in the future over all the years that this mistake affects his children and his relationships and his own spiritual health. So, I pray for my own ability to accept that God will work with David in His own way and time. And I pray that David will have a change of heart. And I pray that we will all have wisdom and strength to find a path through the future even if David never realizes or is too proud to admit that what he did and how he has done it was wrong.
I know that part of my anger stems from what I miss, what will never be again now. Family visits, talks, sharing experiences. I love my sister’s boys so much, but I still miss the years we could have shared together as she raised them. Now, all of our visits and exchanges with Alison and the boys will have the ghost of the husband/father who isn’t there.
