As a Christian, this place is not our home. There are difficulties, struggles, pain, and loss that escape understanding. It’s easy to look around at the brokenness around us and wonder, where is God? How could God allow this to happen? If God is love, why is there so much hate? If God is light, why is there so much evil? I come back to a basic truth that is foundation if you believe God – God did not make man for this world. Just as the beauty of new life, new marriage, and nature proclaim the glory of God, pain, loss, and struggle, proclaim the absence of Him.

Those times when God feels most absent, are when God in love is pulling us to Himself. We are reminded in strong ways, that this world is not our home, but that is not the end. We have a God who loves us, who is calling us home one by one, and who made a way for us to come to Him through the gospel of Jesus.

Psalm 90:12-15 –

“¹² So teach us to number our days
    that we may get a heart of wisdom.
¹³ Return, O Lord! How long?
    Have pity on your servants!
¹⁴ Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,
    that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
¹⁵ Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
    and for as many years as we have seen evil.”

Each day that we live on this Earth will in some measure rightly feel as an affliction. Christian and even non-Christian can look around and say to themselves innately ” This is not how things should be.” We were created for life, not death. We were created for joy in relationship with God, not broken relationships. Our bodies were created for strength, not decay.

Romans 8:22-24 – “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. ²³ And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved.”

The purpose of pain, is to purpose our hearts in faith towards our redemption. This is not our home, so do not pursue joy ultimately here as if it could be found. Rest your hearts in the gospel of Jesus, who has told us, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3).

Seek after God’s will as many days as he has given you here, and set your heart’s affections in knowing that God has better plans for us still. Know that when you see wrong in this world, it is pointing us towards what is Right. He loves you, He is with you, and He is for you.