“Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it.”

When God Disappoints Us...

by Sophia A. Nelson,

Let's have some real talk shall we.  All of us have at one time or another been disappointed in God.  Oh, I know some of you are shocked that I said it out loud, but part of what ails us is that we go around saying trite mess like "I am too blessed to be stressed" when we are about to crack up and lose our minds.  Part of our disappointment, however, has less to do with God than it does with the human beings we deal with everyday (in and out of church; in and out of families) that we expect to love, support, and care for us when hard times hit. The proverbs are clear, 1 John is clear that we are called to love one another at all times, support financially if need be, pray with, feed if need be, clothe if need be, encourage, and speak life into one another. If we as the body of Christ cannot get this right--folks we have missed the point.

Being a Christian is NOT about how many times a week you go to church, or Bible study, or how many Bible verses you know. Being a Christian is about modeling Jesus Christ in our every day lives. Period.

Show me your faith without works writes James. Too many of us have gotten bogged down in which church is right, who is wrong, and we have lost the true meaning of life.  Life is a vapor.  And most of our journey here is a rough ride from day to day.  So our joy must radiate from within--and be shared like an infectious disease with everyone who comes into contact with us.

Nonetheless, people of faith must look to God for their strength (not people--because people will fail us every time), and ultimate victory when passing through or over troubled waters.  But what happens when we seek and God does not answer? When we ask Him and He does not deliver?  Whether we are praying for the healing of a loved one that ultimately passes away, or praying for some illness of our own that only gets worse.  Or maybe we were caught in sin and we prayed, sought counsel, and asked God to help us break the addiction--and when we did we had to awake and face the consequences of our deeds.  Or maybe we have a child who is incarcerated, broken and busted that we pray will come back, but instead they just get farther and farther away.

Maybe it isn't this deep--maybe we lost a job we needed to feed our family, or we lost health care coverage in the midst of a serious illness, maybe we lost our home to foreclosure when all we ever did was work hard, pay the bills on time, and serve faithfully in the body. What happens when a loved one takes his/her own life? Or when a small child gets terminal Cancer.  What about our hopes and dreams that we watch slowly fade away as time passes us by, and we grow weary and bitter? What about the spouse that walks out--the lover that breaks our heart--the loss of the hope of marriage and children that we always wanted?

What happens when a friend we loved like a brother betrays us--or when our own family members abandon us--or worse don't care?

How do we cope with such pain, disillusion and angst and yet still keep our faith?? This is real folks--very real.

These are the things that every single one of us is enduring on some level right now. right now.  I know I am.

So my question for me most of all is how do I keep my faith? How do I keep trusting that I serve a God who sees me--hears me--cares about me? When it seems as if He has forsaken me.

I have come to conclude through years of Bible study and being a Christian for now 31 years that the only way we make it through life's disappointments is by holding onto and helping one another everyday as God commands.  Acts 2:42-47.  They fellowshipped, prayed together, sold their possessions to take care of each other if needed.  They were connected. related. dependent.  And so it must be with our fellowship with God.  Connected. Related. Dependent.

God will not always answer our prayers as we ask Him to.  He will not always spare the life of a loved one.  He will not always heal our infirmities.  He will sometimes let the bottom drop out.  Sometimes the bad guys win.  Sometimes we simply have to keep pressing forward because that is all we have left.  So the key thing is what will we do in the MIDST of our struggles, infirmities, and hurts.  Who will we be? Who will we show up as for all the world to see? Will we still serve, love, and show goodness when we ourselves are under attack?

These are the questions I am wrestling with right now. And I know many of you are too.

I will end by saying--it is okay to grow weary--you just can't faint.  It's okay to be disappointed, even in God--He get's it--He is a faithful parent that loves us and He wants us to cast our cares on Him.  The old hymn says, "sooner or later, we'll know all about it--sooner or later we'll understand."  For now, let's help one another deal with life's disappointments and in so doing we will be truly fulfilling the commands of Christ.

In His Grip,

Sophia