It's not fair! We did everything right, EVERYTHING!!!

Ever watch White Wolves? For those of you that haven't had the privilege, a group of teens and their leader go on a backpacking trip, very much like us, with less canoeing. Their goal is to get to the top of Eagle Rock. They eventually make it to the top and disaster strikes! Their trip turns into a rescue mission and eventually two of the teens embark on the final leg of the mission. The two teens, Benny and Pandra, plan to hike an old lava flow, cross an old bridge then white water raft the Lone Pine to get help. However, as they approach the old bridge, they find it has fallen apart and can't get across it. Benny, full of frustration, yells, "It's not fair! We did everything right, EVERYTHING!!"

Do you ever feel that way? You do everything right but then things don't turn out the way you expect them to?

The way the world generally works is you are rewarded when you do good; whether it's your mom giving you a lollipop for cleaning your room or getting good grades when you study. And the opposite tends to be true as well; if you don't clean your room you get spanked (or grounded) or you don't study and fail the test. And that makes sense and we want to apply it to bigger issues... study hard in college, get a good job. rob a bank, go to jail. eat healthy, live a long life. have sex before marriage, and die. But that doesn't always happen. College grads are unemployed, robbers don't get caught, healthy people die young, and sex before marriage evidently doesn't kill you. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.

Does that mean God isn't actually full of grace and mercy and love that He could allow things like this to happen?

Today we are reading Ephesians 3. Read it and jot down anything that stands out to you. When you are done, go ahead and read on.

The thing that stands out to me in Ephesians 3 is Paul's prayer in verses 14-19. Reread those verses and really pay attention to them.

"When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I pray that He will give you mighty inner strength through His Holy Spirit." (Eph 3:14a,16)

God has a plan so much greater than we can imagine. We only see little glimpses of it. As we go about living life, we easily forget that God has this great plan. I think it was very wise of Paul to pray for inner strength for us in light of God's plan. We can't see the big picture, so living day to day trusting Him can be tough.

Great example of this is Joseph (from Genesis, not Jesus' dad) - think about being in his shoes. His brothers toss him in a pit then sell him into slavery. Potiphar buys him and puts him to work at his home. Joseph does really well and gets put in charge of the whole household. Then Mrs. Potiphar makes some advances at Joseph-he doesn't sin and his reward: prison. Seriously? It's not fair, he did everything right!

But jail, not so terrible for him. He gets placed in a leadership position again and even interprets dreams for the chief cup bearer and chief baker. After correctly interpreting the cup bearer's dream, he's restored to his position but promptly forgets about Joseph. It's not fair, he did everything right!

Now we know the rest of the story-unlike Joseph we don't have to sit and wait in prison for two years to see what happens next. The chief cup bearer finally remembers Joseph and he's brought out of prison and things turn out pretty well for him.

But imagine those two years in prison... think Joesph ever worried about what was going to happen? Think he ever wondered if God had forgotten about him? I imagine Joseph would've needed lots of this inner strength Paul is talking about.

How about you? Do you find it to be easy to trust God? Is it easier to trust Him in the good times or the bad times?

Wow-I've written quite a bit and there's still SO MUCH more to Paul's prayer! There's lots of talk of God's love-the width, length, height and breadth of it and how we'll never fully understand it. When we begin to realize how much God loves us, it makes it easier to trust Him.

Do you believe-like deep down in your heart not just in your head-that God loves you? How have you seen God's love demonstrated in your life lately?

Take some time to pray. Use parts of Paul's prayer and personalize them Talk to God about the things going on in your life. Ask Him to give you the inner strength to trust Him while you deal with those things.

And finally... "Now glory to God! By His mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare ask or hope. May He be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen." (Eph 3:20-21)

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For youth group, I wrote a few of the devotionals we put in a booklet for the teens. First trip we did was a Wilderness Trip to Canada and we were studying Ephesians and grace. This was the devo I wrote on Chapter 3.