"Shalom"

Last night at Kingdom Night, myself and one of the students got into a conversation with a man named Shalom. He was dragging around and oxygen tank and his heart was filled to the brim with hurt. THe conversation went something like this...
Shalom: "there is so much suffering in the world. Why is there so much suffering? Little kids are dying, the economy is crashing, people are without jobs. Ain't nothing gonna get better til God comes back and then we all gotta stand before him on Judgement day and then we is all equal. Why don't people treat us all like we equal. We all the same in God's eyes."
Us: That's true. There is a lot of suffering. People have free choices."
Shalom: "Yeah but my momma didn't chose to be laid off."
Us: "No but sin and suffering is result of human choices."
Shalom: "yeah, but ain't nothing gonna get better til God comes back."
Us: "what if we told you things could get better. That there is hope? What if, things could begin to change today?"
Shalom: "So it might and it might not."
Us: "It will. Hope doesn't depend on our circumstances or even our job."
Shalom: "No, people are just in denial. There is wars and rumors of wars."
Us: "Yes, Shalom, there are. But Hope is a man, his name is Jesus. Do you know about Jesus?"
(Interuption: Shalom: "Yeah, but the economy is bad. That president....and blame, and blame and blame....")
Us: "The economy doesn't dictate whether we have peace and hope. Listen Shalom, let us tell you about Hope. His name is Jesus."

So, the conversation went on and we told him our stories and how our hope isn't dependent on the decisions of other people, the suffering that we go through, whether we have money or not, no, our hope is Jesus. And because of him we have peace, we have joy and we have hope. And no, dear man, we are not living in denial. We just chose to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith-who for the joy set before HIM endure the cross...Yes there is suffering, yes there is pain, yes, there is hurt and hatred and misery..but we can bring hope and no, we don't need money to help people. Sure, of course it helps, but money doesn't bring eternal hope. Oh, man of peace, do you recognize your name? His mindset was so stayed that he kept repeating the same hopelessness over and over and over. We would speak truth, his eyes would brighten for a moment, and then he would shake his head and say "no, it's not possible because of..." Oh Jesus, break the lies, bring peace to Shalom.

Do you have any rivers you think are uncrossable
Do you have any mountains you can't tunnel through?
God specializes in things thought impossible.
He does the things others can not do.

In everything GIVE THANKS, for this is God's will concerning you in Christ Jesus.