On God and Bridges

I came across this article by John Piper today.

All too often we are told that life is supposed to be easy. "Have it your way." "Do what feels good." The fact is, life is sometimes hard, and only God understands why. Sometimes I fear the death of a child or my husband. However, as this article points out, it is only by the mercy of God that any of us lives or dies. Ultimately we as Christians should have the goal to bring the most glory to God that we can. If He decides that a bridge collapse brings Him the most glory, we need to weep with those who weep, love people - whatever that means, and praise God for carrying out His purposes in the earth, despite our lack of understanding it. My seizure disorder comes to mind here, on a personal level.

Somehow this brings me greater peace than believing God had nothing to do with tragedies. Think of the plagues of Egypt. Who knows how many people died as a result, and yet God wanted to demonstrate His power to Pharoah and to the known world by bringing those terrible things. God is righteous, and He was righteous in doing that.

It bears repeating: the point of living on earth is not our comfort or happiness, it is God's glory. I am trying to learn to say with my whole heart the words of Mary, "I am the Lord's servant, let it be to me as You have said."