Thoughts...

In the cardio room at the YMCA there is a wall full of TVs to watch during workouts. Typically I pick the most interesting show and find an elliptical machine in front of it. Today nothing looked good, so I turned my mp3 player on to my music and starting moving.

Even though I was listening to music, I would glance occasionally at the TVs. The one in front of me was tuned to CNN. Each time I glanced up, there were horrible pictures of the Brazilian air crash, hostages, missing women, or some other form of bad news. Even without the sound, the images were overwhelming. When a clip of distraught family members from the plane crash came up I could feel their pain. I began praying for them when something came to my mind.

Every day God sees and feels those same disturbing images. He's there when they happen. There is no tear He doesn't see, no crime He doesn't witness, no broken heart He doesn't feel, and no good thing that doesn't come from Him. There is no person on this earth He didn't give His own Son to redeem. His love is so big, but bad things still happen right along with the good. We've all heard the "Sunday school" answers for those bad things, I have a hard time accepting them. There are lots of books that try to explain them, but I'm not sure anyone really can fully do that. So, here's the conclusion I've come to. I don't have the answers and I'm not supposed to. He is an amazing, perplexing, Almighty, Sovereign, impossible to fully comprehend God, but in His presence we can have a peace that passes all understanding even in the most difficult times.

All that on the elliptical machine.