God Knows...but does He Care?

My Lovely Aunt Ruth posted this and it got me thinking...

God knows what we're going through, but we often forget, that if we love Him and are called according to His purpose (which we are if we love Him) then, He is working good in our lives. It can be really difficult to believe that when we can't even begin to see a way out of our current set of circumstances.

The truth of the matter is, some of us were not geared to forge our own path through life. Some of us are helpers, followers, supporters and cheerleaders of others, but we have no ability to do those things for ourselves. We might not know why that is, but it's just how it is. It is just so much easier and much more fun to help someone else. When you are geared in such a manner, making life-altering decisions can seem overwhelming and crippling. Because of that, we tend to stand still and appear to do nothing and get or go nowhere. It's really hard to imagine that God understands that.

Another truth is that when we try to remember that God knows what we are going through, it's easy to get frustrated and even upset, thinking that if He knows we're struggling, then why isn't He helping? If He is a God of compassion and understanding, then why is He letting us deal with the struggle? Why doesn't He take it away or help us with it? Of course then, when we're Christians and we're trying to be good followers of Jesus, we feel terrible for doubting and questioning and not being able to just do the tasks He seems to have put before us. It can be a burdening cycle that really brings us down and keeps us there.

So how are we supposed to find the reality when those are our truths? How are we supposed to make life-altering decisions when we're not geared to make decisions at all? How are we supposed to handle our struggles when it seems like God doesn't care and isn't helping? I think the answer is perspective.

Recently, when playing billiards with a friend, we were at opposite ends of the table. My friend when to take a shot and (because I like to see my friends win) I spoke up and pointed out what looked like a better shot. My friend pointed out several reasons why she could not make that shot and I said, "Okay, well I am sure it looks different for you over there than it does for me over here. From here it looks like you could make it." Well, after some discussion and thought, my friend decided she would try the shot I pointed out and [thankfully] she sunk the ball with skilled authority!

You see, my friend and I were looking at the same thing, but because I had a different perspective on it, I could see something that she couldn't. Not only that, but I believed in her abilities far more than she did. That is what God is doing for us every moment of every day. He is looking at things from a different (perfect) perspective, pointing out the better shot and believing in our abilities (through Him) to sink the ball. Our problem is that we overlook His help because it isn't what we expect it to be.

It's like the man who prayed for rain to water his garden and got mad at God when it didn't rain. Meanwhile, he turned away a neighbor's offer to help carry water up from the creek and his brother's offer to have some water trucked in. The man expected God to answer him in the way he dictated and when God didn't, the man saw it as God failing him.

If we have struggles, our focus should not be on the struggle, but rather on God's solution to our struggle. If we have a problem, who has God put in our path to help us? If we have a need, what resources has God given us to fulfill that need? We cannot expect that the solution will show up fully assembled. It could look a lot like a product from IKEA, complete with vague instructions and that random, extra Allen wrench. But if we are diligent, in the end, it will all come together and fit perfectly.

God's thoughts are not our thoughts and God's ways are not our ways, but God is ours and we are His and he does know and care about every detail of our lives, more so than we could ever imagine. He does understand our struggles and He does have great compassion for us. He is always helping. Our job is to give Him the benefit of the doubt and to realized that His solutions may not look like our expectations. We just need to start organizing the pieces, take the Allen wrench that He puts in front of us and start building ... all the while trusting that God will always water the garden and find a way to point out the best possible shot to us ... even if comes through mixed metaphors in a random blog post