I started a new book a couple weeks ago called If God is Good – Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil.  One of the great questions this book answers is “Why do the great majority of suffering people want to go on living despite their circumstances?”  That is a complex idea to ponder.  I hear so many people talk about being mad at God when unfortunate events disrupt their life as they knew it.  It could be someone who has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, a long time employee who lost their job shortly before they were planning to retire, or the unjust slavery, rape, and murder of the innocent in far away countries from ours.  Evil is everywhere we turn.  You don’t have to flip through the news channels very long before you see a story on Islamic terrorism.  Scroll through your newsfeed on social media and you will see story after story of acts of racism and bigotry.

It is human nature to want to point the finger at somebody or something when things don’t go our way.  We like to hold someone accountable; to have justice be served.  Unfortunately, there isn’t always an answer to satisfy us.  Live long enough and you will suffer.  As I see it, death is the only way to avoid suffering.  At some point in our lives, we will suffer.  We will have to confront evil.  The question becomes “How strong is your foundation?”  To me, the most important reason I work to evangelize others is to help them have a closer personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  If that relationship is built now, evil and suffering will not penetrate the firm foundation that has taken root within your soul.  I love Jesus’ parable of the sower in which a sower scatters seed that fall on four types of ground.  The seed that falls upon the hard ground never sprouts at all.  The seed that falls upon the stony ground begins to germinate and grow, but is unable to grow roots and eventually withers in the sun.  Then there are the seeds that fall upon thorny ground, where the seeds are able to grow, but the thorns overtake the plants.  Finally, there is the good, fertile ground that receives the seeds and produces much fruit.  I have tried my best to be the fertile ground as wife and mother.

When it comes to sin, we have all fallen short.  I have failed God many, many times.  My whole family has.  I know Dalton did.  I am sure DD had a few sins on his soul the day of the accident.  He would have to have been perfect if he didn’t.  Do I think that will create an eternal separation between him and God?  No way.  He was saved through God’s grace.  Dalton was only able to receive three of the seven sacraments in his 13 years.  But, through those sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, and Reconciliation, he was nourished spiritually and brought closer to God. Though he was a sinful person (like all of us) his ground was fertile. Some people get the wrong idea that to live the Christian life, you have to have sinless perfection.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.  You don’t have to be sinlessly perfect for God to use you. Consider some of the people in the bible that God used to his goodness the most.  Moses wasn’t perfect – He killed an Egyptian.  Paul called himself the chief of sinners.  When Jesus was working miracles, Peter said “Depart from me, Lord, I am a sinful man.”  Nobody can stand before God and say I live a sinless life and never fail.

A little over two years ago, Troy and I were both not the people we wanted to be.  We chose to see our sin for what it was and make a change. Now we no longer drink alcohol.  The choice was made to save our marriage and to be better parents to our children.  We have a responsibility not to be stumbling drunk in front of our kids after a night out with our friends.  We didn’t want those to be memories they would keep with them into adulthood.  Parents set an example for their kids and we no longer believe alcohol has a place in our family.  Since then, we have found that we don’t miss the beer or wine in the least.  Our family has become much stronger because of the decision to change the way we view drinking alcohol.  Troy and I both pray it will have a life-long effect on our children as they mature and grow in independence.

I feel called upon to embrace good and reject evil.  God says, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good” (Romans 12:9).  This passage makes the assumption that we understand the difference between the two.  The problem is we live in a culture that so often switches the price tags.  I find myself regularly withdrawing to Scripture to implore God’s Spirit to train my mind and conscience to recognize what is truly good and what is truly evil.  When it comes to learning and obeying biblical teaching, God tells us, “But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).