Bad Things Happen

Bad things happen
To us or to someone else
And we pray to God and ask Him to fix it
Or help us survive what He has allowed
And He either fixes it (and we say it is because of our very effective prayers)
Or He does not (and we say this must be part of a master plan for our good)
Then we move on

And then bad things happen again

And the process is repeated
Again and again
And again

But then the unthinkable happens

To us or someone else
And we pray to God and ask Him to fix it
Or help us survive what He has allowed

And He does not fix it and we are barely surviving

       Because it is not anything close to fixable
       And it is maybe just barely survivable

And we think

       You better fix it
       Or give me a good reason for it
       And he doesn’t fix it
       Or give any reason for it, good or otherwise

And that answer

To this pain
Is not good enough

And we think

       You know what, even if you did fix it
       No master plan greater good reason
       Could ever be reason enough

And we open our eyes
And see

All the times in the past we’ve prayed for a fix and gotten it

       It wasn’t because of our prayers

All the times in the past we’ve prayed, not gotten a fix, and accepted it anyway

       Acceptance was made possible
       Because a shred of higher purpose was visible
       And though it threatened a piece of us
       It didn’t threaten our core

And we think

Where did I get the idea that God could fix it all
And does anyone else see a problem
Between that thought and the mess
Of a world we live in

And we think

        Oh shit
        Now what

And we let it all go
And start again

And when more bad things happen

To us or someone else
We pray to God for wisdom and strength and endurance
And He gives it
And it doesn’t kill the pain
And the pain still nearly kills us
But it is better than nothing
Though it is nothing like better  

And we do our best to survive

And we move forward
And God moves forward
With us