Written By: Lucy Thompson
“God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.” Yeah. I’m not 100% sure that’s a true statement. And I’ve never really understood why people would say that to people that are hurting. I guess it’s supposed to make us all feel better about whatever we’re going through, that we somehow still have some kind of control over the situation. Guess what. We don’t actually have any control. God is in complete control over every single detail. Even when it hurts, He is there. The glue that holds us together.
So why does He allow these horrible things to happen to us or to those we love? Do you know what happens at Basic Military Training? The Tech Sergeants tear the servicemen apart, completely breaking them down to scratch to be able to mold them into amazing military members and leaders. I believe that God does the same to us. He breaks us down, so we fall flat on our face. He reminds us of who is actually in charge. We all like to think that we have some kind of control over what happens to us, that whatever we have planned will come to fruition. But then, BAM! There’s a car accident, illness, loss of a job, or an unexpected death. All those plans disappear or get sidetracked. I firmly believe that God uses these circumstances to direct us to put our faith back in Him and to use what has happened for His glory.
How?
I honestly don’t know. God uses all things to point us and those we reach back to Jesus. I think these situations make us relatable to others that don’t yet know Jesus personally. We can use our stories and share how God was still there with us in those deep, dark moments. And how we’ve somehow managed to survive what we definitely could not handle on our own.
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The righteous person may have troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; The Lord will rescue his servants; no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.” Psalm 34:18-19, 22
Earlier this year, someone that I was close to, he was more like a brother to me, unexpectedly passed away. His death shook us all to our core. We were, and still are, completely devastated. All our plans have now vanished. All the dreams of what could be will always be just dreams. I absolutely hate that he is gone. As much as I miss him, I know his family misses him even more. I still don’t understand the why of it all. Why did God allow this to happen? My heart still aches with missing him and begging to know why this happened, even though I know I may never know why this side of heaven. Sometimes death just never makes sense. This season has definitely been far harder to handle than anything ever has been before. I cling to the hope that something good will come from something so horrible, that God has a plan to use this ugly thing for His glory. We may not see what the good is for many years, but it will eventually come. I pray for his family to keep breathing and to survive each day until they can start to thrive again.
So why are we given those hard things? To make us fully depend on God, He loves us so much and is always there for us. Even when all we can see is the darkness, give Him the hard things. Let them go. There’s so much freedom in letting go.
Written By: Lucy Thompson
