Heart-Ache and Heaven

Last night I was thinking about a song that I hadn't heard for a long time.  It is a song by MercyMe called "Homesick."  In this song, they talk about a longing and desire to be with God.  It is like when a young child goes somewhere away from their parents, and feel the "butterflies" in their stomach, because they miss home.    When I listen to this song, it reminds me of what Paul says in Philippians 1:21, "to live is Christ, to die is gain."  Now, to be completely honest, I have felt these feelings that Paul is wrestling with in Philippians.  He talks about this struggle between wanting to be with Christ in Heaven, "which is better by far," and being in the body of Christ, which means "fruitful labor."

In this conflict that Paul is dealing with, he completely gives up of the control that he could have.  He leaves it up to God.  He says that he is convinced that he is supposed to be here in the body.  Paul recognizes his purpose here on earth, to glorify God, specifically through encouraging and building of the body of Christ.

This brings me back to the title of this post, "Heart-Ache and Heaven."  The question that I thought of when I first heard this song is why is there so much pain on earth?  This is a question that I hear people fighting through all of the time.  Recently with the Colorado movie theatre shooting, there was a news blog on cnn (http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/24/where-was-god-in-aurora-massacre/) asking, where was God in the midst of this shooting. This blog had comments from both sides.  They went from "Americans are pushing Him away, so why would He bless Americans," to angry posts like "There is no god.  The man was evil, and he's evil because he is crazy."

Focusing on the second point, it is concerning, but not surprising, seeing how somesa people have this viewpoint.  Someone walks into a theatre, kills twelve people, and walks out.  I completely agree, there is definitely evil in those actions.  Being a believer in Christ though, his rationality behind why he is even, could not be further off.  There is a God, one God.  He lives in those who love him, and have been forgiven by Him.

Aside from the killings though, there are still times when I just wonder what God is up to.  Why does God allow children to be aborted by their parents?  Why does God allow people to starve?  Why doesn't He do something about it?

Well, I believe there are two sides to the coin here.  First, God is God, and can allow what he wants, when He wants to.  God calls us to trust him and his plan.  Even though it is difficult, He promises that He will work for the GOOD of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).  I was curious about the word good, so I looked it up in blueletterbible.org, to see what the original greek word meant when it said good.  Good can have many different meanings in our language.  According to blueletterbible.org, good in this instance means "of good constitute or nature, excellent, distinguished, upright, and honourable..."  This use of the word good is not the same as saying this "good" pizza.  Although both are true (depending on the pizza), how the word is defined makes a big difference.  Going back to Romans 8:28, Paul is reminding believers that God will work for the uprightness of those who love Him (some versions also use benefit).  He will work for the best of those who love him.

The second side of the coin is that God calls us to respond to the issues of the world.  Looking at the shooting in Colorado, we are called to love those impacted by the shooting.  Not only are we to love the victims, but we are also called to love the shooter.  It is easier for those in Grand Rapids to do that, compared to the victims' families who were more directly impacted, but we are still called to love him, and tell him about the hope we have in Christ, and offer him the same.

At BHBC (the church I go to), we always talk about the double love command which we are "commanded" to do.  Love God, Love others!

Peace through Christ! 

Chris