Life is Tough, AND THEN, you die, AND THEN???

March 2, 2020

Life is Tough, AND THEN, you die, AND THEN???

                                     

...the anvil and the hammer to tear my soul;
the fire and the metal to mend my holes;
the blacksmith forging straight ahead;
to create this man before you instead;
the truth is my body is strong and pure;
seems the sculptor had given the cure;
but the sculpture is still an unfinished piece;
no eyes to see and no heart to beat;
to become the masterpiece I have to become;
the sculptor is myself and my hands must be strong;
cause self isn’t made by greater powers;
it must be forged in fire with an anvil and hammer.
https://allpoetry.com/poem/11760800-The-Anvil-and-The-Hammer-by-The-Marcellian

Often when you think your life is over, you may just be getting started. The anvil wears out many hammers. God is still on his throne in spite of the world, flesh, devil. Truth is truth whether anyone believes it or not.

I have been thinking much recently about those who simply refuse to believe in God. I have recently developed a painful/aggravating hernia on my abdomen (a bulge about the size of a large egg, my oncologist tells me that no surgeon is going to use a knife on me at my age and in my cancer condition). It brought on the thoughts of a family who lived near us and my talking with the oldest son in the family who, with his wife and 2 boys, lived in a house near his father's house. He had brought his wife to me as a patient. She attended church along with the boys but he never did, like his own father. Here was his excuse for not believing in God; I grew up seeing my father drive his car down to your church to take my mother who was a devout believer and then he would go back to pick her up. In my father's house, I had a younger brother (whom this writer remembers sitting in the sun on the front porch). He died at age 14, never having spoken a word, just a biological organism who was changed and fed by this dear woman. This older brother of this unbelieving father said, "the pastor of your church never went to our house the first time and never showed any interest in my mother's plight in caring for this totally invalid child and, the so-called Christian community showed little concern when our family's house burned down. How does a God of love permit such unloving acts and can this excuse my father's unbelief and consequently my own unbelief."

This son had a very painful hernia, which, as far as I know, he lived with his whole adult life, doing hard work. The thing aggravating him constantly and he, unable to come up with the funds to have anything done about it. On a farm, working in rain/heat/cold, with the insidious pain that irritates any protrusion, such as a hernia, one can easily understand why you could easily hold God responsible for problems which people from the beginning of time have endured and, why would one child of a perfectly normal loving mother, never speak, never enjoy anything that normal children would enjoy...just a burden and more important, everyone at that church saw her faithfulness in going to church; knew about her unbelieving husband and yet, no one, not even the pastor ever showed she or her family, Christan benevolence.

Dealing with suffering is a great teacher. Only a very small percentage of the population of the world never experience suffering, often used as an excuse for unbelief. Dr. Victor Frankel, himself a Jewish doctor prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, said it was only the inner man, the want for survival, that got you through this life. The prisoners in the concentration camp knew that all they had to do was run towards a gate and a guard from the guard tower would shoot them dead and their suffering would be over.

Once we know the 'why' of living then we can concentrate on the 'how' of living. Those who are disabled, those who understand inequities, know that God is ultimately in charge; it is just a matter of trusting Him. Blindness has been my greatest blessing because I am much closer to God now than when sighted BUT I have the mental ability to understand this. Who would have ever known Helen Keller if she had not overcome both blindness and muteness? When Hitler started his book burning her book was at the top of the list to be destroyed. The first people to be destroyed were the disabled/gypsies/hospitalized. God put the first man and woman He created in a perfect world, a perfect environment. He made only one provision in His dealing with mankind "don't touch that tree!". Man has always rebelled, and mankind has always paid the price.

How can anyone doubt God any more than you can doubt history or the world around you? We could easily use Pascal's wager instead of attempting to persuade the unsaved about the love of God. Pascal said "what do you have to lose by believing, if you believe and it is true you have inherited eternal life with God in His Glory. If it does not turn out to be true and you do not have a soul, your body just becomes fertilizer, what have you lost? You lived a life of beautiful absolutes. The absolutes of right and wrong, of loving one another, you win either way".

Christianity is not completed, just tough. Belief in God is a matter of the heart. He will draw you if He wants you and He is perfectly willing to accept you just as you are, willing to forgive every sin which you are willing to give up.