FAITH FILES
WHEN desperate, people do things they wouldn’t normally consider.
If a loved one went missing, you would leave home – even on a dark, snowy night – to search for them. The homeless might ask for help from those they wouldn’t otherwise dream of. And as we’ve seen this week, refugees fleeing war or persecution often take unimaginable risks to start a new life.
Conversely, if we don’t know we’re in need, we’re not prompted to take action.
Years ago, people thought asbestos was fine, and breathed in the dust without concern. If the fire alarm doesn’t go off, we sit in the house until it’s perhaps too late.
Sometimes we need a wake-up call to shake us out of our complacency.
People often ask why God allows bad things to happen. It’s difficult to give a completely satisfactory answer.
But sometimes it is that alarm, warning us of peril ahead.
When all is going well in life, it is easy to think we don’t need God. A good job, comfortable home, loving family – what else do I need? Forget our creator, I’ve got everything I want. I can look after myself, thank you very much.
Yet we forget how fragile our lives really are until something breaks. It’s only when things go wrong that we realise the illusion of self-sufficiency is hollow.
The Bible has many accounts of people who have turned to God in their hour of crisis, and realised that they need Him after all. And many others down the years have testified the same.
Others instead shake their fists at God and blame Him for the evil around them. Yet it isn’t God who has caused this, it’s our choice to turn our backs on Him – who is actually our only true source of help. This only makes things worse.
The world today is in a mess. Environmental disaster looms, new virus variants again on the loose, countries at war… the list goes on.
How desperate does it have to get before we will return to the only One who can sort it out? The Bible promises that there will be an end to it all. But it is our choice whether we will see the benefits of it.
What will you choose?
Tim Gossling, Valley CiDS (Christians Involved in Developing Society)