When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

​One of my best friends, a godly, Christian prayer partner and confidant for thirty years said the other day “Sometimes life doesn’t make sense.” I agreed wholeheartedly.as I ate my ham and cheese omelet at the restaurant we meet at regularly for breakfast.
 
How many times have you heard yourself or someone else say “I just don’t understand? What is happening just does not make sense.”
 

• The inability to understand some life situations is far from uncommon.

 
We have all taken a lap or two around the block of lack of understanding. Matter of fact, if we are honest, we might agree that we understand a lot less than we think about how life should operate.  
 
If you are anything at all like me, there are times I find it extremely frustrating to not be able to figure out why things happen or why things do not happen. Everything within me silently screams to understand. My subsequent searches for understanding often take me on a winding and potentially perilous path to a sinkhole of quicksand called “I still don’t understand.”
 
As the sticky, suffocating sand surrounds me and threatens to sink my thinking into oblivion, I desperately cast my “I don’t understand” dilemmas at the feet of God.
 
Please God, help me to understand is my heartfelt cry. With eager expectation, I hope to hear a word that will satisfy my desire to figure things out. Sometimes that word comes and sometimes it doesn’t.  
           
So, what is a Christian to do when life doesn’t make sense and they don’t understand?
 
Solomon helps us get a healthy grip on THOSE TIMES when we cannot figure life out. His simple instructions in our scripture for the week will save us a lot of grief when we face situations that do not make sense to us. Following the wisdom writer’s three step faith formula will help us prevail over perplexing times we don’t understand.
 
“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”  Proverbs 3:5-6
 
First, TRUST IN THE LORD.
 
The exhortation is to trust in the Lord. In other words, put your faith in God. Simply and purposefully stimulate your faith in situations you don’t understand. And trust the Lord “with all your heart.” Not part, but all your heart. With every fiber of your being, let faith rise up within in you.
 
Take your head out of it and put all your heart into it. As much as possible, shut off your mind and turn on your spirit of faith. Look beyond the shortcomings of your human understanding. Lift your whole heart to the One whose heart knows what is best for you.   
 
Second, DO NOT TRUST IN YOURSELF.
 
The next exhortation is a negative one. Do not lean (rely for support or inspiration) on your ability to understand.
 
 Frustration sets in when we look to ourselves to solve things. Solomon says not trusting in ourselves is critical to success in making sense of life. You and I must resist the overwhelmingly irresistible and unbearable urge to figure it out for ourselves.
 
DO NOT DO IT! Isaiah 55:8-9 reveals that our thoughts and ways are not God’s thoughts and ways. I am glad and you are too that Steve Roll is not God!!! His understanding of life is much higher and wiser than ours. So, when we do not understand, we are to lean on God’s wisdom and understanding, not ours or another human being.     
 
Third, SUBMIT YOUR SITUATION TO GOD.
 
Here is where the rubber meets the road. Acknowledge means to recognize. Recognize what? That God is our Creator and the creature is responsible to his Creator. Responsible to do what?  Willfully and joyfully submit our lives to Him.
 
Please note the phrase “in all your ways.” In every way, hand over your lack of understanding to the One who understands. Release your limitations to the limitless God of the universe. Let go of what does not make sense to you. The Lord will help you make sense of it in His way and good time.
 
The result: HE, not we, will make our paths straight! WOW! Just what we need when we do not understand. A straight path. When we look to Him with faith, God will straighten out the crooked and confusing maze that not understanding can create.
 

• When we do not understand, we can walk by faith on a straight path. And God Himself paves the path for us!

 
If death has suddenly claimed a loved one of yours, or you were recently fired from your good job, or you received a negative medical report, or world-events are tearing at your heart, or your dream is turning into a nightmare and you just don’t understand what is going on--put your trust in the One who does.
 

• Faith does not have to understand to believe! Faith cannot always figure things out. But biblical faith always trusts God who knows what life is about. YOU CAN TRUST HIM!
• Life may not make sense to you and me but God makes sense of life for you and me!!!!!

 
How about you my friend? Something perplexing you today? Driving you border line crazy because life does not make sense?
 

• TRUST HIM TO MAKE SENSE OF WHAT MAKES NO SENSE TO YOU.

 
“Trust in the Lord forever, for in God, the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock. “Isaiah 26:3
 
“Trust in the Lord and go good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.” 
Psalm 37:3
 
A Word For Your Week: When you don’t understand, stand firm in faith. Trust God with what you don’t know.