Servants

We handed tissues and listened quietly as our friend sobbed with agony. "I'm tired of my life. Does God even care anymore about me?"

The week before, another friend had stood defiantly. "God doesn't care. I've prayed and I've even fasted but he's not coming through for me."

On cue, we began our litany to prove that God cares. He'd provided finances at critical times. He'd protected children on the highway and friends in illnesses.

"Well, he doesn't care about me. I feel cursed."

So then we gave our litany on the value of hindsight. We now understood what we had not known before. God had prepared us for some upcoming event by a difficulty in our lives.

The point, as I look back, was to show our friend that God has purpose. But I think we might have been more honest had we said, instead, that we didn't always know why he allowed something. We live in an imperfect world, our days weighed down by consequences. We can waste a lot of time seeking answers to "why" questions.

But now I would tell my friend that we are servants. If the Master chooses to tell us why he's placed us in a particular place, then we're fortunate. Our place is not that of an informed confidant but of a beloved servant. Our task is to listen to our Lord and not our own desires. Our task is to trust and obey.

Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. 1 John 3:24