“Accepting that you may be involved in the answer is a necessary component of prayer, even the Lord’s Prayer.”
―Meier, Paul W., The Lord’s Prayer: Finding New Meanings Within the Language Jesus Spoke
My dear VPs, except for Ruby, it’s hard to believe you are all teenagers now!
Congratulations!
Believe it or not, I was once a teenager. I remember well when I turned 13, it truly was a special moment in my life – a rite of passage.
I was no longer a child. Certainly not an adult, but getting there.
However, with age comes more questions. You begin to understand that life is not as simple as you once thought. But that’s okay, it is a part of maturing. Matter of fact, questions are good. Doubt is good. Don’t be afraid of either. It is when you stop having questions and doubt that you are in trouble.
We see this illustrated in the life of Cain (Genesis 4:1-16). Follow the progression of questions God asked Cain:
- God to Cain: “If you do well, will you not be accepted?”
- God to Cain: “Where is Abel?”
- God to Cain: “What have you done?”
And of course, what he had done was murder his brother. What a sad tale!
And even sadder, it didn’t have to have happened, if only Cain had stopped to answer the first question. But he ran right by it and instead allowed room for envy and bitterness to enter his life.
Believe it or not, there was a time (in my teenage years) that I even questioned if there was a God. Later I struggled with dozens of other questions. But the one thing I didn’t do was run from my questions. I struggled with them and in the end I began finding answers and those answers helped give me direction and purpose.
To be honest, I still have questions and doubts. But the one thing I don’t do is ignore them.
My dear grands, I encourage you to join me in this life-long quest for answers to life’s difficult questions. So far it has been excitedly worth it and I am convinced that in the end we will discover “The” Answer: Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:6,7) and see him face-to-face and have all our questions finally answered. What a day that will be!
Love, Papa
Photo by Alex Panarin on Unsplash
The ONE THING 