Reflection

I enjoyed reading this post that someone shared on Facebook this week and I wanted to share it with you all. It's taken from "The Nine Words that make Christianity make sense."

When I talk to atheists about Christianity, one of the most common objections they raise is the existence of suffering. An atheist friend recently cited one of the more disgusting stories from the day's news and asked: "How can you believe that there's a loving God when something like that happened?"

One self-described ex-Christian explained it to me this way: "They always told me in church that Jesus died on the cross for me because he loved me. I used to believe that, and then my mom got cancer and my sister was killed in a car accident. Now I don't see why Jesus' death on the cross matters, and I definitely don't believe that He loves me."

I can sympathize with those feelings. Though I've never seriously doubted the Faith, the moments when I feel most distant from God, least able to make sense of it all, are when I hear of great injustice and suffering.

This is why we need Ash Wednesday. Because it is there that we receive the key piece of information that makes it all make sense. 'THOU ART DUST AND TO DUST THOU SHALT RETURN" These words from Genesis 3:19 are probably the one thing we can all agree. When we slide into the mentality that our eternity is here, that this world is all there is--Christianity ceases to make sense. A God who permits a finite amount of suffering & injustice doesn't seem so cold when you consider He is leading us toward eternity of perfect peace and justice. When we adopt a heaven-centered worldview, it all starts to make sense.

Where are you going? That's the most important question for a traveler. We are all living travelers. Death calls us all and moves us on. If heaven is not the answer to the question, our whole faith is false. If it is, then there's nothing more important, indeed the whole world is only heaven's womb. When you hear the 9-word-litany Thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return, we are reminded of the truth that our lives here on earth are merely a brief stay in the womb of heaven....