So, who cares?

I love our church. Our pastor has the self-control to go through the book of Psalms at a snails pace so that snails like me can reap the benefits. As we've been looking at Psalm 42 over the last 2 weeks my small mind has considered the problem of suffering and the things we call problems.

David had problems. We have problems. Problems lead us to be downcast. Many times when trouble comes my way, it seems so enormous. I can't see around it. I open my eyes to it in the morning and it's the last thing I see at night. David felt like the ocean was swallowing him with waves breaking over his head.

A trouble may be real (a lawsuit, a car accident, CPS showing up at the door with anonymous allegations). In David's case it was enemies pursuing him and threatening him with doom. Sometimes the problem is only in my mind or emotions. It's not an invading army with flame-throwers or the threat of losing my home... My feelings are hurt. My "rights" have been infringed upon. I urgently desire things to go one way and they go another way instead.

Trouble. Is God unfair? David was a man after God's own heart. WDBTHTGP? (Why do bad things happen to good people?) It's apparent to us that BTHTGP. I know that God uses all things to bring Him glory, but the question (WDBTHTGP) makes God look bad whenever someone brings it up. The question bothers people. I usually sound lame when trying to come up with an answer.

But we're also studying Revelation on Sunday night. And more and more I can see that my seemingly big problems are happening to one little person on this enormous planet. But this enormous planet is just a small dot in our enormous galaxy. BUT our enormous galaxy isn't big enough to even see when you consider the size of the known universe. We're so small that you would have to be God to even know that we exist! So my problem is as big as a speck on a speck on a piece of floating dust. And all this is inconsequential in size as it sits in a little container in the eternal landscape that is the throne room of God. The little container holds all of created matter and time... for all planets in all 4 or 5 dimensions that we speculate about (or 11 according to M-theory). Finite. Outside the box, where God sits, is reality and eternity.

So, what is the worst thing that can happen? My seeming injustices are inconsequential. One day we'll die and open our eyes in heaven and it won't matter that the policeman gave me a ticket for something I didn't do, or my house just blew down. Somehow, instead of a feeling of fatalism, the outside of the box gives me hope. But it also makes me think,"So, what do my troubles really matter? It's all so small. Who cares?"

I was riding to church the other day and I thought something that wasn't nice. And I thought, so what does it matter? How could God possibly care that this speck had a bad thought, or a wrong motive?

This God who lives outside the box with an infinite presence doesn't just care about what happens to His little creation, He cares about what I do, and smaller yet, He it matters to Him why I do it. Really? How could one little sin even be noticed in the grand scheme of things? It's because of God's largeness that He can care about the small things.

Though we live on a dust speck, He made us in His image. Amazing. "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? " He is our constant witness. Good, bad, injustice, triumph, joy or sorrow, faithfulness or failure- He sees. We are not inconsequential. He orders each day for each individual for His purpose. He has agendas that we couldn't even imagine, and concerns that we can't guess. We're small. He made us small. And He lives in my heart. And He does care.

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God."