I'll be the first to admit that it's hard for me to practice what I preach. A lot of bad things happen. But still, before it happened to me, I could always say with confidence--God still loves us. We don't know why we suffer, but it isn't because He doesn't love us. It's what I'd been taught. I fully believed it.
Then... I went through hard things.
And, for those of you who have been through hard things--you know. When it gets really hard... I mean harder then it's ever been hard... you do ask that question, "God, where are you? Do you care?"
And I thought a lot about that. And I questioned whether God does care. Until one day it finally hit me.
Jesus asked the same question. "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?"
Here it was, Jesus' darkest moment. At least, that's how it looked. And we know without a doubt that God still loved him. I mean, He had to, right? Jesus is His son. But here's Jesus really feeling like God has abandoned Him. So if anyone knows how that feels to be abandoned by God, He does.
But we know that God obviously still loves Jesus in that moment of what feels and looks like sheer abandonment. And God brought our salvation from that darkness. So I have to believe that He is going to bring salvation to me, to you, to us, to whatever it is we're going through. I have to believe that He still loves me, even if it doesn't always feel like it.
I guess the question I really had to ask myself is... when hard things happen... do I still love God? Do I still care about Him as much? Do I still trust Him? Do I still believe in Him? Do I still want to be His friend? Even when He allows these hard things to happen, am I going to abandon Him?
And this is what it comes down to. I love Jesus. I do. Despite the horrible things that happen. Despite the hardships and the hurt and the questions and me looking at the world and being like, "how much longer are You going to allow this to go on?" I still love Him fiercely. So I'm not going anywhere.
The truth is that, no matter what it feels like sometimes, Jesus doesn't abandon us. He doesn't stop loving us. And He hasn't asked us to do anything that he hasn't. He became a human. He suffered. He died. He went through all of it. So if anyone gets it, it's him. If He didn't stop loving Peter when he denied Him, or even Judas when he betrayed Him, if He didn't send any kind of retribution for that, if He forgave that and still loved them... then I know He loves me. He loves you. He loves us.
So it's up to us whether we'll love Him back. And I'll do you one better. It's up to us to continue Christ's mission on earth. To love and cherish each other. Regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, pro-life or pro-choice, political stance, what football team we root for, whether we like DC or Avengers better... it doesn't matter. God loves all of us so much.
And just because we sin differently, doesn't mean that any of us are somehow loved less than anyone else. There's plenty of hate and anger in this world. Let's let our love be stronger. Let's be that love. Let's trust that God loves us fiercely.
Above all, let's love each other back. And let's love God back.
