Where Did You Go, God?

Often when bad things happen to us, our first thought is that God has deserted us. We think that we are not worthy of good things or we think, "What have I done to deserve this?" Often we start to believe that we are not meant to be happy or receive His blessings. But the truth is that if we have a strong connection with our God and faith that He will protect us, then we will learn to be comforted by our relationship with Him.

When I was 14 years old, my father unexpectedly passed away. He was a young man himself, and I was left confused, torn, and angry. I could not understand why the God I worshipped, the God I loved, would do something like this to me. "Why am I being punished," I often thought. For years, I carried a tremendous amount of pain with me, silently and subconsciously blaming God for this tragic event, and all "bad things" that happened in my life. I held on to this notion for so long, and never once did I stop and think that I was the one who had turned my back. I was the one who deserted God. From the moment that I started to hold God responsible, I was pushing Him so far away that I could not longer see Him. Before long, my faith was a distant memory, full of negative thoughts and feelings.

However, once I stopped pointing the finger at God for everything negative that occurred in my life, then, and only then, was I truly able to let my feelings of anger and hostility go and accept what had happened. Once I was able to accept the terrible things, then I could put my trust and faith back in God and move on with my life.

When we start believing that God is leaving us in these bad times, we stop learning from these experiences and we hold on to negative thoughts and emotions. God is with us to help us through and for us to lean on and put our focus and attention to. If we start recognizing Him as a friend, someone we would call for comfort and healing, then we will be able to lift ourselves up, brush ourselves off and live our life to the fullest.

By: Anna Kozlowski