Theme of the Week: Why Is Life So Hard?
Bible Verse: Some were wandering in desert wastelands with no place to settle. They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives were wasting away. Psalm 107:4-5
Scripture Reading: Psalm 107:1-9
One reason why we suffer is because we can be losers.
I know the term “loser” has some negative connotations and calling a group of people losers just seems like an outright slur, but that is not how I am using it here. In this case, when I say loser, I mean “people who seem to keep on losing.”
It’s a bit like the Little River Band’s song, Lonesome Loser:
Have you heard about the lonesome loser?
He’s a loser but he still keeps on trying
These are the people who, when opportunity knocked on their door, were out at the grocery store getting milk. When at last their ship sailed in, it arrived an hour after they had opted to take the train. They just seem to miss their big break time and time again. I might just as well have called them “The Unfortunate” or “The Unlucky”.
The Psalmist says that they are trying to find a place to settle, but are unsuccessful. They aren’t sitting around waiting for relief to come to them, for the proverbial check to arrive in the mail, they are actively seeking a better situation. Yet it seems that the cards are stacked against them. No matter what they try, it’s not working. I like this group of people. I can identify with them; my heart goes out to them.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon described this same conundrum 3000 years ago. “I saw something else meaningless under the sun. Righteous men get what the wicked deserve and wicked men get what the righteous deserve.”
This seems to me to be the most difficult of all the reasons for suffering, because it just doesn’t make any sense. I love to solve things and fix things, but sometimes there’s nothing I can do that will solve or fix the situation I am in.
This world is a broken place and because of that, bad things happen to everyone.
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