I understand why God wiped out the earth, to a small extent.
“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. And the Lord was sorry that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I
have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and
birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.’”
I was recently told by someone who had read the story of Noah
and the flood that they knew it, they had heard the story before. Yeah, same here.
It literally just donned on me, though, as to why God
flooded the earth and killed all animals and men except the animals in the ark and
Noah and his family.
Disappointment.
God created man and loved man, and what was man doing? Wickedness and evil continually. Continually!!
Dang. No wonder He got rid of
everyone! I know that I don’t like when
someone doesn’t respond to a text or blows off an outing or is rude or is
passive aggressive or doesn’t remember my name…
Think of anything that people do that annoys you and viola!
Let’s be clear, I’m not going to kill anyone. Yet God is just and did kill people with the
flood and then promised not to flood the earth again. However, I’m more than positive He has plenty
of reasons to blot us out again. Because,
let’s face it, people are selfish, self-centered, rude, passive aggressive, out
right aggressive, forgetful, know-it-alls, arrogant, stingy, mean, uncaring,
disinterested, full of complaints, full of themselves, one-uppers, lazy, etc. Thank goodness God is gracious…
The reality for me right now is that I’m disappointed. Disappointed with friends. Disappointed with co-workers. Disappointed with family members. Disappointed with nurses. Disappointed with patients. And, of course, disappointed with
myself. Unfortunately, with disappointment comes hurt,
anger, and a wealth of other negative feelings and emotions.
Life seems to bring disappointment after disappointment from
every sphere of life at the moment, not just from people. I’m taking a beating and it’s getting really old.
Life may be full of disappointments. Life may make me want to curl up into a
little ball and do nothing. Life may be
hard. Like really hard. All the time.
Life may make me want to give up on people and stow away. Life may be different than what I thought it
would be.
I have a pretty good idea the source for several of my
current disappointments but the answers to “why?” or “for how long?” or “what
can I do about it?” are most definitely not clear or known.
Two things come to mind: a passage and a hymn. Romans 5:1-5 and “In Christ Alone”
God have mercy.
