Water it so it will grow.

The worst thing just happened to me. My friend from camp told me to watch this show on Netflix called, "Jane the Virgin," so my friend, Emily, and I watched the first episode before I left for my home church's retreat this weekend. The show was super exciting and filled with plot twists, and I was so excited to watch it with Emily when I got back! But Emily was really excited to watch it too, and when I got back, she was already on episode 10-without me! Now I'm so behind! Oh, God, why would You let this happen?!?!

I'm just kidding, of course; I don't really care that she watched the episodes without me. But sometimes tragedies do happen in our lives, whether they are really small or really huge.

A few years ago, I met this guy at Cedar Point, and we started talking. That's a whole long, crazy story in itself, but the important part right now is the situation that guy was in in his relationship with God. He told me about his suffering growing up; his dad was abusive. He would beat him even when he didn't know exactly what he did wrong. His own father left him badly bruised and broke his nose on more than one occasion. He grew to hate his father, and worse, he grew to hate God. He would cry out to God time and time again and pray that his father would stop, that he could be safe, and to have a relationship with his dad again, but nothing ever changed. His dad still abused him, and he never felt any comfort from God. He told me he considered himself an atheist because he couldn't believe in a God who would let him go through that. Even if God was real, he didn't care because He never did anything to help him even when he asked.

I consider that to be on a pretty large scale. But what about 9/11? What about the Holocaust?

It would make sense for an all-powerful God, who created us and cares about us, to protect us from the tragedies and suffering of this world, but so often, it seems he doesn't.

Why does a God who loves us let bad things happen? 

My youth leader addressed this briefly as part of his lesson this weekend. We were watching this video series about searching for happiness in the right places instead of in popularity, appearance, and other things like that. The video told the story of this girl who found out she had cancer, and then overcame it. Then, she got it again in her lungs, and decided to go on her church's mission trip to Africa. After she came back, she was given a wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. She wished that an orphanage could be built in the African community she had just visited. The foundation gave her as much as they could supply: $29,000, and people who were touched by her story donated the remainder of the $60,000 she needed to build the shelter. If she had never gotten cancer, the orphanage never would have been built. Sometimes God turns our suffering into something beautiful.

In the absence of the pastor, we did an impromptu worship service at the retreat Sunday morning. Several people were asked to play a part in the service, and it all came together nicely. My job was to read the Bible passage they gave me and to briefly say something about it that applied to life.

The verse I got was 2 Thessalonians 1:3-5.

"We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. 4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. 5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering."

What I got from this passage is that even though we have bad days or go through periods of suffering in our lives, we should still thank God for those moments because ultimately, he is using them to make us stronger. 

So, the best answer I can give is that God makes these things happen because he is shaping us and helping us to grow. Each of these terrible things is part of his plan, which is out of our realm of understanding. We won't always see right away what the purpose for each event is, but I'm sure someday it will become clear to us. 

If you really think about it, although it was horrible, there were good things that came out of 9/11. It brought our whole nation together. It encouraged airplane security system to grow stronger. I wonder how many more similar tragedies were prevented and how many more terrorists were stopped because of those security lines and baggage checks at the airport. 

Suffering for God makes us worthy of his kingdom. 

For example, if I look back at each of my ex-boyfriends, even though I went through a lot of trouble in those relationships, I know that I learned something from each and every memory I have from those times in my life. I've grown so much wiser since my first relationship and learned enough about what to do and what not to do that I'm confident that when I find the guy I'm supposed to be with, I'll know what I want out of the relationship, how to be an awesome girlfriend, and how to keep a long lasting, God-filled relationship. Without those first mistakes, I would never be ready for the guy that will come along. 

In the same way, all of the suffering we do for God somehow makes us stronger, wiser, and ready for when Jesus comes along. I like to think that God planted us all here on the earth for a reason and He is just watering us so that we will grow. 

So the next time I want to watch a series on Netflix with someone, I'll know that I have to tell them to wait for me so we can watch it together; I learned my lesson.