Don’t understand

[Dialer]

My Dad was a good, God fearing man, he brought us up in a Southern Baptist Church all of our lives, served as a deacon on many occasions throughout his life. How his life ended with the pain of Alzheimer’s disease and dimensia just goes against all he’s done for God in his life. To suffer for years and then to pass away suffering in a nursing home just seems like a slap in the face to him and all of what he lived his life for. I just don’t understand why God would allow him and his entire family to suffer after the life he gave to Jesus Christ. It’s like he used my father, the just cast him away to suffer and die and I cold dark place, alone. Makes one wonder why

 

[1eyefishing]

Life is not fair.
Neither is death.
Things like this have long made me wonder about God's plan...
I don't understand.

 

[Madman]

My Dad was a good, God fearing man, he brought us up in a Southern Baptist Church all of our lives, served as a deacon on many occasions throughout his life. How his life ended with the pain of Alzheimer’s disease and dimensia just goes against all he’s done for God in his life. To suffer for years and then to pass away suffering in a nursing home just seems like a slap in the face to him and all of what he lived his life for. I just don’t understand why God would allow him and his entire family to suffer after the life he gave to Jesus Christ. It’s like he used my father, the just cast him away to suffer and die and I cold dark place, alone. Makes one wonder why

Dialer,

I am sorry to hear about your father, it is difficult enough to loose good men, but when dimensia is what takes good strong men it is even more difficult. The story of your father reminds me of how my fathers last years were.

The knowledge of suffering is one of the hardest things for me as a Christian to understand, it is not easy.

The Church has tried to offer truth on the topic for centuries. I have found the better I understand God the better I understand how suffering can prepare me.

God's peace.

http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2009/08/a-catholic-reflection-on-the-meaning-of-suffering/

 

[strothershwacker]

Christ felt the same way when He hung on the cross and cried "my God, my God why has Thou forsaken me?"

 

[gemcgrew]

My dad passed away this past March. He suffered and died.

I know that the believer lives as long as Christ lives.

God did not allow me to place my feelings for my dad, above my reverence for my God.

 

[Dialer]

Thanks all, but still don’t get it....I’ll try

 

[Nicodemus]

I watched my Beloved Mother die for two and a half years of a cancer that has no cure.

I often wonder the same questions myself.

 

[strothershwacker]

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
Romans 8:18

 

[NE GA Pappy]

Thanks all, but still don’t get it....I’ll try

I have a lot to say about this subject, but right now, I can't put it into words. You may never understand it while you are alive, but don't become bitter and blame God.

When I can formulate my thoughts, I will try to post them up. Maybe it will help

 

[Artfuldodger]

I have no answer but I'm sure that at times many of us have asked that same question.

 

[1eyefishing]

It is something all of us go through unless we are unlucky enough to pass before our parents...

 

[4HAND]

My mama served God all of her life. Very devout! At 84 she had a massive stroke & passed away several days later.

My Stepdad was a preacher for over 70 years. He lasted about 8 months after her. Just before he died all he could do was weakly point up with his finger. He was so ready to go to heaven.

As has already been said, we can't question God's ways or his reasons.

I pray God will give you comfort.
Just remember, one day you will be reunited.

 

[gordon 2]

Romans 8:10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

...............

18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
----------------

I have often heard nursing staff say of dementia- alzheirmer's patients they are "lost souls"--"they are lost in their illness". I think what they meant was that they are souls lost in ill minds... prisoners of minds that will not leave them to be competent and sound individuals.

Yet they are and remain souls--souls in Christ and still Christ in them now in their illness as when they were sound and healthy. Christ is still present and with and in the person ( both are or remain inseparable in suffering) -- in no way does it mean that they have lost God's love...

To question God for an hour of suffering in a lifetime of blessings is perhaps the ministry of the sick to the sound in body and mind.

I have known people with Dementia- alzheirmer's to respond to love, fear and joy and yet unable to respond intellectually with much soundness to things we take for granted as healthy individual--such as recognition of family for example... Funny how that works. Love seems very powerful....and comes through when not much of anything else does.

Also, as we age one or more physical system will get worn down and start misfiring (speaking with mechanical terms now). For some individuals it is the circulatory system that gets upset, for others it is the cardio-pulmunary system, for others it is the endocrine system, (glands-kidneys-liver-pancreas) and for others it is the nervous system itself-- and to mention also sight and hearing issues, joint-bone issues, loss of muscle mass, digestion issues, excretion issues...

How we see and understand love in all these changes might change, grow and get corrected with the changes.

 

[Spineyman]

My Dad was a good, God fearing man, he brought us up in a Southern Baptist Church all of our lives, served as a deacon on many occasions throughout his life. How his life ended with the pain of Alzheimer’s disease and dimensia just goes against all he’s done for God in his life. To suffer for years and then to pass away suffering in a nursing home just seems like a slap in the face to him and all of what he lived his life for. I just don’t understand why God would allow him and his entire family to suffer after the life he gave to Jesus Christ. It’s like he used my father, the just cast him away to suffer and die and I cold dark place, alone. Makes one wonder why

If he was truly one of Christs which sounds like he was, then he did not just discard him to suffer on his own. Christ was actually there with him in his sufferings. One of the big misunderstandings in the church today is that we all are not only baptized into Christs death, and His life, we are also baptized into His suffering. We too will suffer in this life, and some more than others. It does not mean He left us alone to bear the awful burden, but He carried it for us.

1 Peter 5:10
10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

Romans 5:3-4
3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

Psalm 34:19

19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.

1 Peter 4:1
4 Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,

Here are just a few, but think of it this way. God can not make a diamond with out heat and pressure. You see God is making diamonds out of all of His children.

Isaiah 48:10
10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

Don't give up and loose heart, your father is now entered his eternal reward.

 

[formula1]

Coming up near 5th anniversary of Mom's victory over this awful disease. Mom loved and served Jesus more than anyone I know!

My thoughts on your struggle are simple: Remember only how much your Dad cared for the Lord and go and do likewise! It is the only thing that matters! God bless!

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Some of the most faithful and devout suffered the most, look at what happened to the disciples, I believe we are far to simple to understand god's way.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Some of the most faithful and devout suffered the most, look at what happened to the disciples, I believe we are far to simple to understand god's way.

 

[1gr8bldr]

My Dad was a good, God fearing man, he brought us up in a Southern Baptist Church all of our lives, served as a deacon on many occasions throughout his life. How his life ended with the pain of Alzheimer’s disease and dimensia just goes against all he’s done for God in his life. To suffer for years and then to pass away suffering in a nursing home just seems like a slap in the face to him and all of what he lived his life for. I just don’t understand why God would allow him and his entire family to suffer after the life he gave to Jesus Christ. It’s like he used my father, the just cast him away to suffer and die and I cold dark place, alone. Makes one wonder why

it's strange how we seek to find something good in hardship, as if we learned something, as if it had a purpose. This justification is often used when the outcome is favorable. But in your case, justification can't be found to be reasonable. This scenario has a way of carrying an extremely heavy weight, because, you hope to find something good..... but can't see it. I went through a crisis like this, among many smaller crisis. Eventually, your left with no answers. A choice to be mad at God, to disbelieve, or to be humbled. A crushed humble, because you had hoped God was going to show up and do something amazing. But it does not always come. So sorry that you all went through this extremely hard time. I have no answers for you. I only hope that you can have some degree of comfort that someone understands what your saying.

 

[Brother David]

I have read this post twice and feel the Lord wanting me to opine , I have used this piece of scripture more than once at a funeral . Even Christ had questions that only the Father can answer . WHY !
Matthew 27:
45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land to the ninth hour.
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

 

[hobbs27]

My dad left this physical world almost four years ago. He suffered a long time with diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. He eventually died after a three month stay in the hospital with infection they could not stop. For his entire stay he didnt recognize me. I felt a little cheated that we couldn't say our goodbyes and talk ...

With all the physical suffering he did, he began to look forward to death, he had made that clear. He only looked forward to it because of his faith and that spiritual peace may well have been the only peace he had. We aren't promised a good life here, unlike what you may hear from prosperity preachers, I dont think God rewards us over others in fleshly worldly things, but what He does for us spiritually is unequal to what may happen to us carnally.

I have a friend that's spent the better parts of his life in a wheelchair, but his Spirit and faith makes him happy each day. With the spiritual well being our savior gives us, we can get through any suffering.