Pandora, Hope Remains

Hope is just a prayer away; the God of wonders sits just beyond the infinite, waiting to hear His children speak.

Across the void of our physical separation from our God runs a connection that allows us to stay in touch. Many relate it to a wifi signal, but it's something so much more than wifi. It's not simple packets being uploaded and downloaded. It's not even a surefire way to get what we want. What we receive may be hardship laden and difficult to bear. The connection to our God isn't a one way connection, but multidirectional. We just usually don't care to listen to Him speak.

No matter how much we seek after God, the troubles will arrive. Cancer will slowly kill the most cheerful. Bullets will tear into the most youthful. Drunkenness can cause car crashes. Texting can cause car crashes. Fatigue can cause car crashes. And because in all three cases - drunkenness, texting, and fatigue - the driver who is at fault is not paying attention, their body is relaxed when the cars collide. Tense bodies (those drivers who are alert and safe drivers) shatter easier and die more often than relaxed ones. It's not fair that the safe and responsible should die; God knows.

Grief strikes all around us. Even if it isn't death, fire can steal away possessions. Waves can ruin and destroy homes. Words can wreck and destroy lives. There are more paths to pain than there are to life, it seems. The most sound fortress is not impenetrable. There is nothing we can do to defend ourselves against grief, loss, and pain. They will sneak in like thieves in the night, or they will crash through like a train derailed.

In the times of loss and pain, it can be easy to assign blame to God. He is in control of everything that happens, right? Couldn't He have prevented my loss and my pain? If He loves me, why does He allow me pain? Why do the rich prosper and the poor despair? All these questions are valid, and deserve an answer. However, answers are rarely provided for those with ragged eyes and little sleep.

Our God is one of mystery. 1 Corinthians 1:25 says: "God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength," (HCSB). If His foolishness is wiser than our wisdom, then there is absolutely no way we can start to understand Him. He allows Himself to be known by showing facets of Himself to us through His word, His revelation, and through the testimony of others. This doesn't mean we will always have answers, but we will always have prayer.

We need to get on our knees. We need to seek after a God who really DOES love us. Love doesn't guarantee good times or a perfect life, but it does promise arms to run to when we face trouble. Run to those arms. The pain you face now, the pain that consumes you, is a pain that God can bear. You may think you hurt more than anyone else, but Jesus was torn from Heaven's arms and thrown into a caustic world that would crucify Him. God faced the loss of an only Son, but not only that, He faced the bruising words of the ignorant people that killed Jesus. Pain was piled upon pain, and God's heart was ripped from its place and thrown from His chest.

Since our God has faced such terrible pain, and come out of it continuing to love and forgive, why shouldn't we run to Him? He is the most tenderhearted, and He will keep us from hardening our own hearts. Bitterness can be easy to embrace when we are facing pain and loss, but it leaves us empty and corroded inside. The love offered to us seems to have little substance, but when we start applying it, we find hope in it. 

Our God knows how fulfilling love can be. He knows that hope is found in His arms. He gives freely to those who ask. He'll replace bitterness with love, and offer hope. Humbled on our knees, we stand our strongest. Our foundation is unshakable, and our God is immovable. While we sway in the wind, we never need to fear because we are held down to the Rock. Prayer brings us closer to God.

We cannot blame God for what He does, because He knows what He is doing. He's been at His job a long time. Entrust Him with your heart, worries, and cares, and what you had lost, God can replace. Don't be afraid to ask for hope often, because God has infinite storehouses of unexplainable hope. Do you think He will run out, or shut the doors to His storehouses because He is running low? Of course not! Ask freely, and He will give freely. He loves to see His children ask for things.

Pain can be a hard thing to face. We don't need to face it. Facing our pain desensitizes our hearts to other people's pain, because we think ours is worse. Run from pain. Run to God's arms, where hope awaits. He will soften your heart, take your pain on His shoulders, and replace it with hope. He willingly takes your pain and bears it because He loves you. 

In Greek mythology, there was a girl named Pandora. Pandora was given a box. In this box, she unknowingly held all the evils of the world - murder, rape, death, destruction - and hope. She was told to never open the box, but to safeguard it with her own life. However, she got curious, and opened the box. As the evils rushed out of the box, she quickly realized her mistake and shut the box as quickly as she could. Hope remained trapped inside.

You were given the capacity for every type of evil in the world to safeguard, and our confounding world, in return for your faithful service to withholding that evil, has opened it's own box of grief unto you. It's backwards and it's frustrating. Don't retaliate. Give your box to Jesus. He'll break it open, take that pain upon Himself, and hand you back the hope that you couldn't reach before. Pandora, hold onto Hope - onto Jesus - for all your worth because that is all you have left.