Life is sometimes unfair. We experience loss, pain and injury. Sometimes terrible things happen to us through no fault of our own. We want someone or something to blame. Many times, we believe that God has failed us. Scripture teaches us that when life seems unfair, God's people should bring their complaints to God.
Introduction & Chapter 1: Lament
Chapter 2: Reaching Out
Chapter 3: Expectations and Accepting Help
Chapter 4: Hope and Thanksgiving
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Bobby was taking his new kite outside to fly it for the first time. He was thrilled with his father’s gift. He flung the screen door open just as the ball of string dropped from his hand. As he reached to retrieve the string, the screen door bounced back snapping the kite’s fragile wooden strut. Bobby was shocked. He couldn’t believe it. His new kite was broken. The broken wood had also pierced the thin paper of the kite. In a flash, Bobby felt ashamed, dejected, embarrassed, and angry. Why had this happened? How could it have happened? What could he do about it? All these questions raced through his mind. And almost as quickly, he found an answer. “I know. I’ll take it to my father. I know he won’t be happy, but at least he can fix it, and then I can fly my brand new kite!”
Lament or grieving comes from within. If we are to grieve, we must dare to look and feel within. There we will discover the loss that has led us to choose to believe that life is unfair. As long as we deny our suffering, as long as we avoid the pain of our loss, we do not take the inward journey. Yet spiritual healing requires that inward journey. For as long as we deny our loss and our suffering, we are pretending to be self-sufficient; we are isolating ourselves from reaching out for help; we are perhaps even fooling ourselves into believing that we need no one else, not even God.
In this chapter, we will look at two more steps toward healing from the wounds of unfair blows that come our way. One step is to examine our assumptions. Another step is to accept help. We have been taught that life is supposed to be fair.
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