- Faith Like A Child

Ever felt like you're drowning in sorrow? Felt like everything is just too much to bear? Overwhelmed by problems, worries....like you're never getting a break....life just never seems to let up, sometimes. One thing after another.

One woman emailed me today with this: "When I was diagnosed 18 months ago with a very aggressive breast cancer, I was submerged with thoughts of death....I searched desperately for help but found nothing. I had treatments every week and chemo every 3 weeks, so there was no time or energy to look for support." 

She has now finished her treatments and looks amazing. I'm sure if you asked her two years ago, though, what her plans were for the next little while, cancer would not have been on her list.

John Lennon said: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." Oh, yeah. Like you're busy planning to do something fun, or you've decided to take an exciting trip, or you're trying to live your life quietly without disturbing anyone, hoping nobody will disturb you.

You're minding your own business, basically, and then.....thunk. It happens. Tragedy. Sickness. Betrayal. Divorce. Your kid in jail. 

Whatever. Yep, I totally get that. You're suddenly numb. Your world goes topsy turvy, and you're having trouble breathing, trouble thinking, trouble sleeping. You try holding it all together (for the sake of the kids, for the sake of your spouse, for the sake of the mailman), but inside, you're screaming "WHY ME??? WHY ME??? I'M A GOOD PERSON AND I DON'T DESERVE THIS!!!" 

You never see it coming. And suddenly, life just completely sucks.

Here's an email I received from another woman this week: "Wow, this is also a long road for you. Chemo, damn!! I know you will be OK afterwards with that positive attitude!! I have been down the screaming ''why me'' and ''don't let me die; I can't leave my son and husband'' road, but yes, it's all about staying positive. It is really %?$/&*) hard to do sometimes.

"Me - I am better now. The radiation treatments really burned me. But I can now see that light at the end of the tunnel everyone keeps talking about, as you will too, my dear!!!! Life throws us so many of these curves; all right, already, enough!!!"

I know, I know - life can be so brutal. Unpredictable. Unfair. So what do we do when disaster strikes?

Have you ever tried having simple faith like a child?

"He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:2-3  (The New Testament)

Now, when I read that verse, I get very excited, because if you know me, I'm a complete kid at heart! I act like a kid! I goof around like a kid! I can do a kid's voice authentic enough that you'd swear I am a kid! Yipeeee!! This must mean I'm first in line for the Kingdom of Heaven! Ha!

Seriously, though, I know....for some of you, there are a thousand reasons why you can't believe; won't believe. I mean, really; c'mon....in this day and age, to have faith in something unseen, in Someone you can't scientifically prove....isn't that just throwing your brain away and leaning on emotionalism? Please.

After all, we're more advanced now as a society. This isn't the nineteen-fifties . . . this is the twenty-first century! We've progressed beyond needing blind faith; a crutch; religion; or as Karl Marx staunchly declared, "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes" - "religion is the opiate of the masses" or "the people".

Hmm....perhaps. But Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, physicist and philosopher, said: "There is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't." 

I believe that's true. "There is enough light for those who want to believe...." Ask yourself if you even want to believe. That may be the first step you're missing. Maybe you could start by wanting to believe.

Maybe you could ask in your heart that if there is a God, will He please show up in your life somehow? Will He somehow give you the strength and the courage to stand up and believe in Him; give you the glimmer of hope you need to make the leap from unbelief to belief?

As a suggestion from little old me, why not read the following words to Like A Child below, kind of like you would a prayer, and then, if you've got a few more minutes, listen to the song.

Maybe something will click inside you or maybe it won't, but if it does, maybe,  just maybe, you'll be able to take a tiny step towards starting a faith journey similar to the one I began more than 30 years ago.

Maybe right now, today, something will start making sense to you that didn't before, and you'll get a glimpse of something or Someone invisible Who is as real to me as you are.

When that happens, no matter what else happens, life is just never the same again.

Like A Child    by Jars of Clay
Dear God, surround me as I speak,

The bridges that I walk across are weak
The frustrations fill the void
That I can't solely bear

Dear God, don't let me fall apart,
You've held me close to You
But I have turned away

And searched for answers
I can't understand

Chorus:
They say that I can move the mountains
And send them falling to the sea
They say that I can walk on water
If I would follow and believe
With faith like a child

Sometimes, when I feel miles away
And my eyes can't see Your face
Well, I wonder if I've grown to lose the recklessness
I walked in light of You

Chorus:

They say that I can move the mountains
And send them crashing to the sea
They say that I can walk on water
If I would follow and believe
With faith like a child

"I've got joy like a fountain!"
"Be kind one to a other"
"In Jesus Christ Your son"

Chorus:
They say that I can move the mountains
And send them crashing to the sea
They say that I can walk on water
If I would follow and believe

They say that love can heal the broken

They say that hope can make you see

They say that faith can find a Savior

If you would follow and believe

With faith like a child