In college, there are often big class discussions. One day the discussion turned to God. A student explained how they watched the news interview a person whose community had been torn apart by a tornado. Their home had been spared and they believed it was because they prayed to God during the storm. This student asked, “If God is real, then why did He let this person’s house survive, but not their neighbor’s?”

I wanted to jump into the discussion, but I didn’t. I didn’t know how to explain my thoughts. You see, my first thoughts were, maybe because it would bring them closer to God. But, in our simple human brains, we often don’t understand this concept. How could a loving God allow something bad to happen to one person, but not to another? Why would God do it just to make that person more dependent on Him?

I have often thought about that time and how I could have spoken up and said something. It’s hard to explain that God is God. I’m still not sure that I can explain it in a way that would do God justice.

The story of Job taught me to never ask “Why?” In Exodus 3:14, God told Moses, “I Am Who I Am.” In Romans 11:34, Paul wrote, “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor.”  Psalms 135:6 says, “Yahweh does whatever He pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths.”

These things about God aren’t a bad thing, though, because He is perfect. He doesn’t make mistakes. He doesn’t lie, cheat, or steal. He knows all things because he created all things. He understands the workings of the mind better than anyone; the way we think and our thoughts. There is nothing God can’t do.  He is here now and in Heaven.

You see, we try to put human limitations on God because that is what we know and understand. But, God doesn’t have limitations. God is love.

So, when the injustices of the world get me down I remind myself of two Bible verses.

1. “For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:45 HCSB)
2. For I know the plans I have for you” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11 HCSB)

I like to think of it like this — God is the author of my story. He has already written the happy ending. But He has left the middle for me to write. But just like any good book, there has to be a climax. That is when I realize his version of my story is better than mine. Yet, being a child of God, the story never ends. It continues to have conflicts and resolutions that God and I co-write, but it goes on forever.

Lord, thank You for being the author of my life. It gives me peace of mind to know that you have good things for me in the future. Give me knowledge and strength during the conflicts of my life.