Walking in Hope

I’ve found two problems with miracles in the life of faith. The first problem, can we really believe they happen? I was taught, implicitly if not explicitly, that science can explain so much, and that things happen based on natural laws. Many apologists have addressed this question, and I’ve understood for years that God is above creation and natural laws are what he put in place, and he is free to overrule them when he chooses.The second problem, once I grasped that God is free to overrule and act whenever he chooses, why God doesn’t overrule more often? Why do good people suffer? Why do bad governments endure for so long, or become replaced by worse ones? Why do we so often pray for a real need, an unselfish need, and see no answer? To test our faith? Because we lack faith? 

I believe the best answer to these  questions is to remember that the kingdom of God has not yet come in all its fullness. The kingdom has come, Jesus announced it, but he also taught us that faith will require persistence in prayer. Paul and Peter speak about our need for patience and endurance, that the best is yet to come. God is with us, but not all our problems are solved here and now.

These stories are written in this perspective. In our lives we can see God moments, we can see his hand. We will also see much that still needs his touch. Death, disease, persecution and other sufferings do afflict us and are not signs of lack of faith or failure in obedience. 

These are fictional stories, but often reworkings of real experiences I have had or I have heard of. The two Biblical time stories, of Esther and Peter, are imaginations of what might have happened. 

Walking in Hope is available in print (in print from Amazon) and in electronic version.