Do you ever experience a faltering of faith?  If and when this happens to a person, usually life is not going well.  These trials might range from issues being fairly small and personal in nature to catastrophic events that affect a large group of people. Perhaps you failed a test in a class you were taking, lowering your GPA.  Maybe you didn’t get the job you wanted or lost the one you had.  Even worse, you may have been involved in a situation that cost lives of people you cared about.  Whatever the negative occurrence and your state of mind, a faltering of faith could result.  We ask ourselves and sometimes others, “Why is this happening to me?  Why is this happening to my loved ones?  If there is a God, why does He allow bad things to happen?  Why doesn’t He stop them”?

I had these questions when 9/11 occurred.  Every time I hear of another school or mass shooting in a public place I ask “Why”?  I have read many accounts of people living through the Holocaust and losing their faith along the way because of what they and loved ones endured.  They felt God had abandoned them.  In one of the stories, a Jewish woman admitted she had lost her faith during her time in a concentration camp.  She prayed and prayed and God didn’t stop the atrocities.  Where was He when she and all the victims around her needed Him?  She finally came back to God in her old age when one of her grandsons was involved in a terrible car accident.  For the first time in fifty years, she prayed to God to save him.  Her prayers were answered and thankfully her grandson survived and she regained her faith.  Of course, it was not that easy and simple for her, the road was rough and not all stories have a happy ending.

God never promised a life free of trials and tribulations.  He never promised our lives would be happy and carefree all the time.  What He did promise was His help in getting us through every trial we are given.  If we have faith in the unconditional love He grants us, He will get us through.  We just need to keep the faith.

Faith doesn’t always take you out of the problem. Faith takes you through the problem.  Faith doesn’t always take away the pain. Faith gets you through the pain. Faith doesn’t always take you out of the storm.  Faith calms you in the midst of the storm.  Have faith in the Lord.  His mercy endures forever.

Patty Willoughby