Thoughts About the Boston Marathon Bombing

I haven't blogged in a very long time.  Life has been very full and very busy.  I've done a lot that I'd love to share with you, but I haven't made the time to do so.

In light of the bombing yesterday, I want to take some time to get my thoughts down.  Even if nobody else ever reads this, I'm doing this for me and my family.

The same question keeps spinning through my head:

Will you live in fear or live in faith?

I choose faith.

There are so many things in this world - in this life - that cause fear.  If I let fear control how I live, my wardrobe would consist of a helmet, flack jacket, knee pads, and steel toed shoes - maybe even a gas mask.  My home would have 8 foot concrete walls and be airtight and underground.  My family would always be within reach, which means we would never leave home.  I wouldn't even trust anyone else with any information, any of my property, or any of my family.

I would live paralyzed and alone.

If I chose to venture out of my home, I would never enjoy life the way it was mean to be enjoyed.  I would be too busy analyzing situations to enjoy them.  I would be too busy trying to control everything that happened around me to even see the beauty in any of it.

But I choose faith.

Faith means that I know there is evil in this world.  But, I know my God is in this world.  I know that God has my future and it is not here.  I know that God holds the future of my loved ones - and our future is together with Him.  

I know that he holds the future of those who do things like planting bombs in the middles of hundreds of thousands of people.

He holds their future.  He wants them to come to Him - to know Him. 

The fallen side of me doesn't think that's fair.  I want to believe that they will be punished in the end.  They will live through the terror that they have caused others, over and over again for all eternity.  

But that isn't for me to decide or to even know.

I choose faith.  My faith that tells me that God loves me.  He loves all of us.

I choose faith.  My faith tells me that I can live my life without a guarantee of tomorrow, but with a guarantee of eternity.  And, given the choice, I'll take eternity over tomorrow!

So, I choose my faith that tells me there is evil in this world.  My faith that doesn't guarantee an easy life here, but guarantees my future.

If there were not sufferings on this earth, would we still yearn for Heaven?  This is not Heaven.  There is evil on this earth and there will be until He returns!