When It's Hard to Understand

John 6: 60-71

There are some things that are hard to understand. Twenty years ago my best friend told me she had leukemia. She was a young mom at the time, her youngest hadn't reached her second birthday. I was a new believer in Christ. A mother with children to raise shouldn't die, I thought, but she did, not long after her diagnosis. My new faith in Christ wavered, it was hard to see His plan and purpose when her precious children were left without the mother that loved them.

Jesus has just told the crowd that's been following Him they would need to eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life (John 6:54). They don't understand that He is speaking in spiritual terms and answer, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" Jesus knows they are grumbling about what He has said. It was at this point that, "many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him."

We get to that point sometimes. I know I did after my friend's death. It was hard, and I didn't understand, so I wanted to turn back. But Christ calls us to follow Him even when things don't make sense. It requires trust. We have to believe that He knows what is best, because life isn't one event. It's an intricately woven series of events that make up the whole of God's plan.

Peter was quick to answer when Jesus asked if he too would leave, "Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." Peter knew there was no one else to turn to. Jesus was life.

God's good in my friend's death hasn't been revealed to me. I may never understand, but as I walk with Him every day He teaches me to trust Him no matter what. And to agree with Peter - where else would I go, who else is there? No one - only Jesus.

Psalm 73:21-26 says it best:
"When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You. Yet I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."