What do you say to a good friend on the phone when both parties know she is in a close-quarter death fight that she will not win much longer? Are there any answers to the rhetorical questions of “why me”? What do you do when you can not find any reasonable ways to deal with the questions of life and hope for the future?
“You may have to draw straws when faced with a tough decision.” (Proverbs 18.19)
A good friend is torn because he has finally come face to face with the god of self found within each of us. His discovery brought the conflict between hope and an accurate understanding of the reality of who he is to the surface. There is no place to hind from the conflict. Easy answers and solutions do not exist. His discovery is one that each of us will make; often on a daily basis.
A friend of over a decade is dying. There is no known cure or solution that will restore her to where she was one year ago, thirty years ago, or to her childhood. The will to survive, fight on and then on some more, is very strong. Some say that the disease will in the end win the day. We talk and I hold on to the hope that of the new creation that God offers to each of us.
There are no easy answers to the problems, challenges, and pain in life; yet maybe there is?
God personally experienced the extremes that come with being human and living out his years. He experienced men rejecting the gifts he freely offered. He understood that his simple and plain message was twisted and ignored by the very people who were in a position to recognize them as what they really were and are. He accepted the scorn, hatred, anger, ignorance, and eventually a punishment of crucifixion that was not of his making. In the end He freely accepted the short-straw he had chosen with his Father so that we could receive a recreation chance.
