God is Good and Life is Hard

Not one of us can escape the bloody reality. Eloquent sermons and piles upon piles of books about our faith can’t dismiss it. If we dare to whisper it out loud, our faith could be called into question. It is the foundation of our doubts and the centerfold of our fears. The truth of which I speak? God is good and life is hard. Yes, God is infinitely gloriously good and life is infinitely dark, painful and crushing. 
 
The chasm between these too realities is too much to bear. When we finally see the truth of it all, we work tirelessly to close the gap. We minimize our pain and dismiss it as the method of choice by a God whose main goal in my life is to build character. We placate the pain around us by offering religious sentiments and slap on a few nice verses. The fixer inside all of us rises quicker than the tide on a full moon offering our best advice to make the pain go away. 
 
But, if our problems can be minimized that easily, then God doesn’t need to be that good either. God doesn’t need to be powerful and miracles are well, something for another age. God becomes a weekend feel good sermon and pain becomes that one closet we can never open or me might not get it shut again. 
 
But, what if, in our real need, we get to see the real Jesus? What if Jesus IS the solution and not simply the pez dispenser of answers in my broken world?