Solving the Problem of Struggle
I have always been a question and answer kind of girl. A thinker – I doubt this is very surprising to any of my regular readers as I share my thoughts with you. 🙂 I like solving logic problems and working things out in my head. I love mathematics – doing proofs, and solving algebraic equations have been some of my favorite things in life, even though those are no longer things I do regularly, and my mind is not as sharp in that field as it once was. But I carried my math solving way into my life. Life worked out to an easy answer.
Black and white. Cold hard truth. Cut and dry. The end. My dad always said I could be a lawyer, because I could definitely argue my case every time, and truth be told, my husband says I win every argument when we fight. Maybe that’s not totally true, but I know how to stick it to you and logically win. So how do you ask the right questions to stop struggling?
Why?
When I asked myself why a person has to suffer, I had an answer, because the Bible tells me why, and the solution was again cut and dry. Since the Bible is my jumping off point of belief, it gave me a logical answer. Easy A. the end.
Of course, this was my childhood logic, before the variable of suffering had been introduced to my life in a tangible way.
When the suffering surrounded me so hard I was in the pit of darkness, I asked why a lot with no solution to the problem. But then again, when I was in the pit, my logic wasn’t working well, and I couldn’t read the Bible well either. It was if the words were twisted on the page, and I could not see, so I surely could not find a solution.
I began to let go of the question. In fact, I think the question would remained unsolved if I’d kept asking why.
Asking why kept me down in the miry pit. So I had to turn to two other questions? Who? What?
Who?
Who is God? When we struggle we want to know if He is good. We base our goodness on whether we can be free of the struggle. But God must be unchangeable. We cannot mix our variables into His constancy. We are not God. We are not immutable – unchanging. He must be defined as good apart from us. Math 101 or maybe 401? In any case, God says this,
“Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you will answer me.” Job 40:7
It is okay to ask questions of God. Sometimes even asking why is okay, but when we ask why too many times, whether we understand it or not, we begin to place ourselves in God’s position and tell Him what good is. However, good is the constancy of God and it cannot be changed to fit our own definition of it.
What?
What has God done? God has loved us with an unfathomable love, even sending His Son – God struggling alongside us. On Monday, I’ll be sharing more about this for the Hello Mornings blog.
Solving the Problem
Some questions don’t have easy answers – even some math problems don’t work out to nice solutions. Now that I am older, I know that not everything is as simple as the black and white solutions I made them out to be. Some things do seem gray. But adding the constancy of who God is and the solution of His unchanging Love changes every problem. It always works out – He is the answer.
How are you allowing Him to be your answer today?
Photo credit: Flickr user, Virtual EyeSee
Very well said Jamie!! Today I’m struggling with many things…so even though I want to ask God the “whys” of my life I’m just resting in him. Resting in him knowing that he has me …
I’m struggling to understand why we lost our home, had to sell 2 cars, and my husband remains, for the most part, unemployed after 3 years. It’s so hard to lean in and trust at times, but I listen for His voice. He is the only one who has the answer!