Midweek: Hell Is Happening

People often want to know why God allows bad things to happen to good people. The definition of "good people" notwithstanding, I think we all have more than a casual acquaintance with the "bad things". Every one of us has known a faith-filled saint who was unjustly stricken with a terminal disease, or the innocent child orphaned by a drunk driver, or the service member who is tormented by the ravages of his service. We've all had checks that bounced or children who have rebelled or spouses who have been unfaithful or a pharmacy that lost our prescription. Why are people treated this way by life? by other people? by God? And when we ask the question, the big question --Why do bad things happen to good people? --we are usually told something about a fallen world and mankind's rejection of God. Or it's explained that the things we endure provide us with all we need to encourage or comfort others when they, too, are called to endure it. Or that, maybe, there's no reason we can identify at the moment, but one day it will all be made clear. Those are great explanations, but has anyone ever told you that, perhaps, you've just gotten a glimpse of hell? Has anyone ever told you that the evil in this world is allowed to touch us from time to time in order to give us a tiny taste of what separation from God would look like? I'll grant you, it's probably not a popular thought, but what if, in seeing the mottled skin of a child with cancer or the psychological suffering of a rape victim, we are given not only the compassion to pray for them or comfort them, but the passion to pray that throughout the world the adversary and his demons would be brought to heel by the mighty power of Christ? What if, upon grieving with a grandfather over the loss of his grandchild or walking into the underlying hopelessness of an Alzheimer's unit, the reality of hell is so heavy upon us that we cannot stop praying for the souls of those who have not known Christ? What if, in bearing witness to the torment of divorce or the unconscionable hatred that is racism or the contagion of apathy that exists among far too many young people or the self-indulgence that exists among far too many of our "public servants" --what if in all of this we are meant to catch a glimpse of what existence would be like were God to withdraw His hand from our world ...and we were to begin praying fervently for His mercy? What if we are meant to know just a --thanks be to God! --glancing blow of the hell those without Christ will sustain for all of eternity if we do not preach the word in season and out, live out loud for our King, pray for those who do not know of Jesus and for the hearts of those who have rejected Him, support missions; what if we are meant to know these things so that we might develop a heart for others and refuse to cease Kingdom work until the whole world knows?

That's all I've got for today. It's been on my mind. Hell is happening all around us. What are we doing about it?