Playing soccer when I was younger started getting frustrating from the standpoint that you could put your whole heart into a game, preparing for it, etc. and you still might end up losing because of a funny bounce, someone would lose the ball in the lights, something seemingly fluke (or, someone could just "outdo" you because they were more capable in the flesh - which seemed equally senseless to me). The "return" did not seem to justify the "investment" at times (I don't know how else to put it). At the end of it, it was just striving in the flesh, and you know how that can go, disappointment, frustration and all the rest.
In God, if you sow 100%, you return much more. There are no funny bounces and flukes in the kingdom of God. He rewards every good and every evil thing, perfectly. Life got so frustrating to me when I was younger because I didn't know there was a God in heaven keeping things in order like that (you saying what you did about God working to get us back in line with Him and with others reminded me of that). There's purpose everywhere. If we don't see it, life can seem pretty hopeless.
I'm so glad we serve a God like this. Whenever I think of it (here lately at least), it feels like I'm taking a good, deep breath of air. It's like, "Ohhhh, everything is right in the universe, what a blessing".
Talk to you later.
Taylor
Taylor
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What you are describing is why Solomon said "Therefore, I hated life." What wise man can love living in a world like this, where unjust things can happen to us, and often do? It is bad to live in a world where we do not always reap what we sow. Solomon thought it was far better to die and get out of this crazy world than it is to be born into it because after we die, there is nothing but perfect, eternal justice waiting for us. Here, we can earnestly do what is good, and then suffer for it; and here, people can do what is evil and perverse, and be glorified for it - but that will never be the case beyond the grave.
Pastor John
