Dear God, How Could You?

Categories:Spiritual Growth

Dear God,

How could you allow a searing hatred to destroy your people? I don’t understand…

People praying.

Your children talking to you. Your sons and daughters who could have been out to eat or watching TV or spending time with their families…………………..but instead were at church.

Because they love you.

Is this the reward for devotion?

How does this fit against a backdrop of perfect love?

Where were you?

What were you doing?

What will people think about you?

Even those of us who love you with our whole selves ask through hot tears and aching souls…

How could you?

I was there.  

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

Be assured, I was there.

In God, whose word I praise,
    in the Lord, whose word I praise—
 in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can man do to me? Psalm 56:10-11

And I heard.

In my distress I called to the Lord;
    I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
    my cry came before him, into his ears. Psalm 18:6

BUT WHY?

I know you don’t understand.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts…

neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8

People sing "We Shall Overcome" during a service at Morris Brown AME Church June 18, 2015 in Charleston, South Carolina. US police on Thursday arrested a 21-year-old white gunman suspected of killing nine people at a prayer meeting in one of the nation's oldest black churches in Charleston, an attack being probed as a hate crime. The shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the southeastern US city was one of the worst attacks on a place of worship in the country in recent years, and comes at a time of lingering racial tensions. AFP PHOTO/BRENDAN SMIALOWSKIBRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9

But what about our hurting souls?

Know this…

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants. Psalm 116:15

I have caught every tear.

    You keep track of all my sorrows.
    You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
    You have recorded each one in your book. Psalm 56:8

And I have things under control.

God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled… 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7

Let me be clear….I more than have things under control……..I am working good.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

John says in 1 John 3:15 that if we harbor hatred in our hearts, we are murderers. Exactly the same as a young man who sits in a prayer meeting and then murders its participants. The same. The very same.

That’s not okay.

That’s not okay at all.

Humans of SC Take NYC
What Does Your Hurry Say About You?

3 Comments

  1. Martha Davis
    Martha Davis
    June 20, 2015 at 3:04 am

    Cookie, hearing some of those present speak during the bond hearing Friday morning brought tears because those people love God and trust Him despite losing friends and family, despite witnessing in a probability, the most horrific tragedy of their lives. One even lovingly asked him to repent. Thank You, God for allowing the world to see that Your children still love You even when they don’t understand! Thank You for the unity!

    • Cookie Cawthon
      June 20, 2015 at 9:40 am

      Martha, I know… What a beautiful, beautiful picture of Jesus the family members have been. I am so challenged by their love and so broken over their loss.

  2. Cheryl Rose
    Cheryl Rose
    June 22, 2015 at 2:58 pm

    Wow! Right on 🙂
    Love you girl and keep on sharing 🙂