Where is God when . . .

I went back and reread my last blog entry - on Aug 18, 2008 - and laughed. I literally laughed out loud. The entire tone of the blog was happiness and contentment and expectation and peace. I can honestly say that the ONLY emotion listed above that I feel today is the last one. Peace. 6 months ago today, I started a new job. I mentioned a great deal about it in the Aug 18 blog. I said things like "I started a new job at a different law firm with a GREAT attorney . . . Not only am I working for a MUCH better attorney, but I actually get to go to court with the attorney.I really enjoy my job now."

Wow.

I wish I could say that five months after this post I still felt that my attorney was GREAT and I enjoyed working for her. Now, I am actually relieved to say that she has offered my position to someone else and, once that person accepts, I will no longer be employed at this firm.

Several thoughts ran through my mind when I found this out yesterday and the very first emotion I felt was - wait for it - happiness. How can I be happy about losing my job? With the world the way it is and the economic situations that everyone is facing, how can I be pleased to be unemployed? It didn't make sense.

Then I thought about it. I can be happy, even as I walk through this valley, because God is with me. It's easy to look around us and see the crime and the depression and the sadness that has engulfed the world and think, "where is God now?". It's easy to have the Bruce Almight mentality that we can take on the world's problems so much better than God, since he seems to be do nothing anyway. Certainly, anything we can do is better than God doing nothing.

Another line from my last post said "God has given me a job that I actually enjoy." Does the fact that I no longer have this job mean that God is no longer beside me? If that's the case, then who moved? Every word in the Scripture is God-breathed. That means, God was there when it happened and He was there when the author wrote it down so I could read it in the year 2009.

There are some events in the Bible that, as Christians, it's hard to imagine God being "ok" with the actions of His people. For instance, how can David, a man after God's own heart, kill the husband of a woman he lusted after and there be NO mention of how God responded? You know God wasn't pleased with David. Or with Jacob. This man had two wives AND he still slept with their maidservants. Instead of the Scripture telling how God responded to this, it says that God blessed the sons born out of that immorality.

I'm doing a Beth Moore bible study and she said that "sometimes God reserves the right to tell us what happened without telling us how He reacted to it. God is wholly secure in His own spotless integrity that He feels perfectly comfortable giving us an account of something without making Himself accountable to us."

I read those two sentences over and over again. As a human, I want to know not only the journey, but the destination as well. As a Christian, I feel, at times, that I deserve an explanation by God. God's word is packed with believers that question God, but stood firm in their faith in Him. I am whole-heartedly one of those believers. I question God and get angry at God and even shout at God. But never, not once, do I doubt God. God is with me when I'm in a job that I love - just as He is with me now when I'm exiting that same job.

It is so easy to trust God when things are going smoothly, but what about when the storm comes. During one of Paul's missionary journeys, God sent a storm and everyone on the boat knew that they were going to drown. You know what Paul did? He sat down and ate. I can picture him sitting on this boat as the waves are crashing around and splashing all the men and, possibly, filling the hulls with water. I can see the men around him frightened and crying out to whatever god they serve to save them. I can see Paul calmly opening a picnic basket and eating while the others panic. Paul trusted God enough that he actually found peace amongst the raging storm. He knew that God was with him.

Right now, during this storm in my life, I praise God for holding me in the palm of His hand. The peace I feel inside proves that God is with me. He will never leave me. Or foresake me. I know that God knows the plans HE has for me. Plans to prosper me - not to harm me. Plans to give me hope AND a future. You know what the best part of that verse to me is? The three words: DECLARES THE LORD. God loves me so much that He is passionate about what HE has planned for my life. How can I not trust in that? How can I not find comfort in His arms? I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I trust - and love - He who holds tomorrow!