“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalms 13:1”
When Kelly James and two climbing buddies died on Oregon’s Mount Hood in the USA, his brother Frank, a professor of theology, admitted: “It’s one thing to talk about death in the abstract. It’s another to cope with the death of someone you love … Death is ugly. We can’t — and shouldn’t — try to make it palatable with pious platitudes … One question haunts me, ‘Where was God when Kelly was freezing to death?’ For me not to ask would be a failure to take God seriously … I’m not suggesting mere mortals stand in judgment of God … God doesn’t report to me. But an honest question from a broken heart is a good and righteous thing.” David wasn’t afraid to ask God, “How long will you hide your face?” Then a few verses later the same distressed David declares, “But I trust in your unfailing love” (Psalm 13:5).
Frank James continues: “Amid all the spiritual consternation God manifested Himself in my grief. Somehow He’s found disappointment, confusion, and raw emotions. This doesn’t exactly make sense to me, and I don’t like it. But my concept of faith has become Abrahamic … I must trust God even when I don’t understand … as Christians have confessed for centuries, ‘We look for the resurrection of the dead’ (see 1 Corinthians 15:42) … Amid enough tears to fill an ocean … we’ve had to bury loved ones. But we bury them with this promise, ‘For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive’ (1 Corinthians 15:22). It doesn’t indemnify us against grief … It does, however, take faith to depths where hope begins to poke through the heartache, like a sunbeam piercing a cloudy sky.”
Prayer
Heavenly Father, How Long O Lord — but I trust in Your unfailing love! Thank You for that assurance! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Stay encouraged!
Pastor Mike
