Give It All

To think about

“The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you.” --Frederick Buechner

“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.” --Frederick Buechner

“Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love” --Martin Luther King Jr.

“If any man ascribes anything of salvation, even the very least thing, to the free will of man, he knows nothing of grace, and he has not learned Jesus Christ rightly” --Martin Luther

God's Handwriting

He writes in characters too grand
For our short sight to understand;
We catch but broken strokes, and try
To fathom all the mystery
Of withered hopes, of death, of life,
The endless war, the useless strife, --
But there, with larger, clearer sight,
We shall see this -- His way was right.

.: John Oxenham

We are never the victim of nature or the prey of fate. Chance is eliminated. Would God truly abandon us to the whims of this fallen world? If we do not believe this than we are left to believe what Rabbi Kushner concluded in his book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" that God is strong. Or God is good. But God is not both. If God cares, he isn't strong; if he is strong, he doesn't care. He can't be both. We are left to choose between "...a good God who is not totally powerful, or a powerful God who is not really good."
But the Bible tells us a different story:

"I am the one who creates the light and makes the darkness. I am the one who sends good times & bad times. I, the Lord, am the one who does these things." (Isaiah 45:7)

"God...is the blessed controller of all things, the king over all kings and the master of all masters." (1 Timothy 6:15)

and finally,

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God." (Isaiah 43:2-3)

We will go through the floods and fires but at the end of the day, the Lord is still over all things and completely in control.

I would not dare presume to tell someone who is going through trials that God is in control so it's all good. I have been through enough fires and floods in my life to know that that is not the answer. Personally, those people who told me that, I wanted to punch in the face and never speak another word to me. (Not the most Christ-like response I'll admit)
It is rather my own personal experience that God has provided comfort and peace where none should exist. Hope where none should exist. And when I read these scriptures, I am comforted as they seem to leap off the pages. I still do not know or understand God's ways. But I choose to accept His sovereignty.