Spiritual Growth part 2

I seriously wrote my longest blog entry ever. I'll try and break it into two parts, although it doesn't have a great stopping point. It's already written, so you won't have to wait MONTHS for the next blog as usual. I'll post them both, and then you can read them when you can. They're both sort of rough drafts, because darnit if I edited everything it would never make it to you, because I'm such a perfectionist. Here we go:

I bet you thought you’d never see the follow up to part one, but here it is.

It’s really a simple, basic truth that pretty much everyone would agree with – except maybe a child. It’s the fact that bad things happen in this life. It happens to all people of all faiths of all races of all ages. Horrific, unbelievable tragedies occur. People do truly evil things that cause irreparable damage to other people. There is nothing you can do to prepare yourself. It will come as a total shock. It will rock your world and change your life, probably not for the better. You may be left scarred with pain that will follow you for the rest of your earthly life. Some people get hit with these things worse than others, but none of us are immune, and much of it is out of our control.

But, life is not all bad. Of course not! There are lots of wonderful things about this life and this world, but ultimately, it’s not our home. This world is screwed up.

Back to what I said about what a child might agree with. The Bible says in Luke 18:17 (and in Matthew 18:3, and Mark 10:15: "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all." I’ve heard people interpret this as God wants us to have faith like a child, but this is the only verse I can find in the Bible that says something like that, and I don’t think that’s exactly what it means.

A quick internet search led me to a fellow blogger and his interpretation of faith like a child:

Jon is talking about walking around the neighborhood with his daughter when she was a toddler.

Yet as we crossed one street after another, she held my hand and knew deep in her heart that she was safe. She knew her father loved her and would always do what was best for her. She knew her father would protect her from all harm and guide her in the best way to go, every single time. All she had to do was hold his hand and do what he told her to do and she would have fun along the way, whether she knew where she was going or not!

That used to be me. That’s how I thought my life would be now that I had surrendered control to God and asked him to come in and be Lord of my life. Nothing bad could happen to me or those I love. Just hold his hand, have fun and no harm will come my way. That’s NOT what the message of the Bible and it’s not the way life is.

When hard times did come I felt betrayed by him, or I felt like I had done something wrong, but he wasn’t breaking any promises. Part of why I felt betrayed is because I thought this Bible verse:

And God's peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. ~~Philippians 4:7

… guaranteed me an absence of pain. The verse above is from the Amplified Bible and the amplification of the word peace in this version is very helpful. It sounds nice, but I am so rarely content – don’t know how. I wish I was like a computer and I could press the content button, or run the content program. I wish it was like a recipe – put together these ingredients, in this order, using this technique and voila – you’re content!

Continued in part 3...