Let’s be honest. It has been the hardest year of our entire lives. I’m not even exaggerating. On top of the regular ups and downs of mission work, intervening in some lives of teens we work with, financially living by faith, we also lost our son Elijah, and the past months have not been without their trouble. Along the journey of asking “why” (a question that God’s been getting most of Earth’s history), I’ve found myself (numerous times) trying to remind God that we’re His friends. We don’t feel that God is the causation of our pain, but like anyone who goes through pain, the reality is that the Almighty, sovereign, Creator of the Universe allowed [...]

I know that in grieving, anger is OK. Even anger at God. God can handle our anger. But through this process of losing our boy I haven't been angry at God. I've been angry at the circumstance,I've been angry at death, and I've been angry at fallen humanity. When it comes to God I am: in awe at His goodness, captivated by His mystery, thankful for His incarnation (He sympathizes with my weakness), and I am at peace in His sovereignty. I think with our humanistic mindsets in the western culture, we are quick to think that we are entitled to a lot of things. To think that God is sovereign messes with us, because humanistic [...]