Finding Hope When Life's Not Fair

Lee Ezell

Description

Whether debilitating illness, divorce, financial hardship, emotional upheaval, or a loved one's death, life's injustice impacts everyone. When it does, questions arise: How can God allow such suffering? Why is he so silent? Can he be trusted?Finding Hope When Life's Not Fair chronicles Lee Ezell's own journey of hope and courage as she struggled with her faith during her darkest days. Offering no easy answers but plenty of hard-won wisdom, she writes honestly about how deep pain can run--and offers a compelling argument that God's love runs deeper still. Whatever their circumstances, readers will find their faith buoyed as this book affirms the reality of the Lord's grace awaiting them in their toughest times.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441243157
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2001 by Lee Ezell
Published by Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.revellbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2013
Spire edition published 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-4315-7
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scripture identified KJV is from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture identified M ESSAGE is taken from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved.
Scripture identified NEB is from The New English Bible. Copyright © 1961, 1970, 1989 by The Delegates of Oxford University Press and The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press. Reprinted by permission.
Published in association with the literary agency of Ann Spangler and Company, 1420 Pontiac Road S.E., Grand Rapids, MI 49506.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC
“Lee Ezell is a gifted author and speaker. She has made us laugh for years. In this book Lee lays bare her soul and puts words to the questions we all long to ask but are afraid to. This is not a book of theory—she has walked every painful step and out of the struggles of her own life gives us this wonderful gift.”
Sheila Walsh , recording artist
“Lee Ezell has graciously endured the blast furnace of the Refiner’s fire. In Finding Hope When Life’s Not Fair, Lee plants seeds of hope in the hearts of a society of sufferers. If your heart is hurting—read this book!”
Dr. John C. Hagee , pastor
“Only Lee Ezell could take the subject of loss and approach it with humor and a deep sensitivity that grabs at your heart. Lee’s words on pain and suffering ring true—she lives her talk. I know because Jan and I walked alongside her through the pain she describes. Lee never minimized the reality and pain of her losses, but at the same time, she never minimizes the power and presence of God’s hand on her throughout it all. Here’s a book that will bring God’s light into your darkest times!”
David Stoop , Ph.D., clinical psychologist, author
“Lee Ezell has proven herself over and over again as a woman who draws strength from the Scriptures in the face of tragedy and pain. The Word has been her salvation in many of the challenges she has faced in her life. Similarly, we can draw strength and comfort from Finding Hope When Life’s Not Fair, as she continually points us to her comfort ‘with the comfort by which we have been comforted’ (2 Cor. 1:4).”
Anna Hayford
This book is dedicated, with much love, to my dear Hal. Only the Holy Spirit can replace you in being the Wind beneath my wings.
Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface
1 For the Survival-Challenged
2 Dealing with the “Big C”
3 Looking for the Normal World
4 When God Says No
5 Faith . . . or Presumption?
6 Grace at Death’s Door
7 Seek and Ye Shall Find
8 Grace Comes in the Mourning
9 Aftershock
10 The Roller Coaster of Life
11 Faith Takes Time
12 When It Rains It Pours
13 Fruit from the Tree of Life
14 Character Building? I’ll Pass, Thanks
15 Turning Our Wounds into Wisdom
Cancer Appendix
Widow’s Appendix
Notes
About the Auther
Acknowledgments
Y ou’ve all been so faithful in my hour of need. How can I ever say thanks? I hope you all know how very much I love and appreciate you!
The Ezell clan, especially Pam and Jim; Sandi, Rich, and Mason Bushnell; Don and Linda; Nana; and Velma and John.
Julie Makimaa.
The Harvey clan, especially Margaret.
Ryan and Gerda Audagnotti, Pam and Rich Boyer, Paul and Toni Danchik, Danny Darling, Stephen and Arlene Fleishman, Ron and Connie Haus, Susie Jones, Pat and Bill King, Clyde and Peggy Martin, Regis and Deb, Pat Rexroat, Pam and Mike Rozell, Daryl and Jennifer Silberberg, Betty and Fred Southard, Gisela and Steven B. Stevens, Dave and Jan Stoop, Jim and Norma Swanson, Bob and Laura Whyley.
Special thanks to my talented editor, Dave Wimbish. Without his expertise, writing this book would have been “unfair.” Thanks, Dave.
Preface
B efore we begin, it’s only fair to warn you: I’m biased. I believe that the only true expression of God and His ways is found through the Holy Scriptures. This book is based on the premise that the reader also accepts the Bible as the Word of God—as His love letter and instruction manual for His kids.
All my assumptions and deductions are based on what this Holy Book has to say about God and His Son, Jesus Christ. If you are not sure about all this “religious” stuff, I encourage you to keep reading anyway, because I believe you will find healing in these pages.
1
For the Survival-Challenged
Life is lived forward
and understood backward.
S ad!
That’s what I thought when I first saw her.
She was standing near the back of a long line of people who were waiting to talk to me after a speaking engagement.
She was a tall, attractive woman on the young side of middle age.
I would have guessed that she was in her late thirties.
Until I looked into her eyes.
They looked older, sadder somehow. Out of place in that otherwise pretty face.
If it’s true that the eyes are a window to the soul, then I was looking into a soul that was well acquainted with sorrow.
When her place in the line finally reached me, she told me she was pleased to meet me, and then said, “You know, you’re really amazing.”
“I am?” I smiled, trying not to look too pleased. “What makes you think so?”
“Because,” she sighed, “I know you’ve been through a lot, but you never seem to get mad at God.”
“Oh, let me tell you . . .” I began, but she didn’t give me a chance to finish my sentence.
“I mean, haven’t you ever felt like shouting at Him? Or maybe shaking your fist and telling Him it’s not fair?”
“You better believe I have!” I cried. “In fact, anyone who thinks I never got mad at God doesn’t know me very well! Of course I got mad! And you bet I asked Him why crummy things happened to me!”
“Really!” she said. “So you don’t think it’s wrong to be angry with God?”
“Listen,” I said, laughing, “if it’s a sin to get upset with God, then we’re probably all in a lot of trouble! We can get angry and not sin.”
I can’t say that it was that woman’s question that prompted me to write this book. I’d already been thinking about it for quite a while. But she, and others like her, have helped me not to give up on this project when it started to feel “too heavy.” They’ve let me know that it’s important to keep going for the sake of thousands of Christians who have no idea what to do with their pain and grief, and who can’t really admit the way they’re feeling because they’re afraid that to do so would be to commit a sin.
I’ve Never Been a Mourning Person
Your experience of loss and pain may not be the same as mine. But if you have suffered—and you probably wouldn’t be reading this book if you haven’t—you realize that tragedy affects one’s view of the universe in deep and lasting ways. When life seems unfair, no honest person will simply plaster a smile on her face and turn to God in easy, childlike trust.
No way! At one time or another, almost all of us will wonder how a loving God can allow such terrible suffering to fall upon the people He created.
Prior to the past few years, I had always considered myself to be a happy-go-lucky, lighthearted gal. I’ve never been a “mourning person.” When it comes to life’s problems, my philosophy has always been, “get over it . . . get a grip . . . get on with it.”
Whatever came my way, I knew it was okay. I learned early in life that God truly is in charge of the universe, and Romans 8:28 is speaking the truth when it promises that God will cause all things to work together for the good of those who love Him. That wasn’t something I learned by reading the Bible either. I had experienced this time and again in my own life.
Now, if you know me, you know that I’m not a stranger to pain and sorrow.
I’ll tell you more of my story later on, but for now I’ll just say that I’ve hurt, I’ve ached, I’ve cried. But in all of those times I’ve seen God work good—sooner or later.
Still, I was totally unprepared for the avalanche of trouble that descended upon my husband, Hal, and me two years ago now. Before that happened, I thought I had God pretty well figured out. After all, I’d written some bestselling books in which I’d talked passionately about my faith in Christ. I’d spoken to hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, encouraging them and exhorting them to live for God. I ought to know a thing or two.
But when my safe, comfortable life began to crumble, I found myself behaving like the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah—mentally shaking my fist at God and asking questions like: “Where are you?” “Don’t you care anymore?” “If you’re really in control of everything, how can you let this happen?” My relationship with God was shaken, and my understanding of His ways seemed hopelessly confused.
I felt like someone whose house had been ransacked by burglars. As if I had gone out in the morning with everything neatly in place and come home to find that all my possessions had been dumped onto the floor in a confusing, jumbled mess. It didn’t seem to me that I would ever be able to get things back into the tidy little packages where they belonged. I longed to return to the ordinary world but could not seem to find my way.
Planting Seeds of Hope
It’s not my intention to tell some soap-opera so