(Forgive me, Frank, but...) I met up with a brother for lunch yesterday. He chose a diner that he frequents often, and this was the second time that we ate their together. As I'm pulling up, I see a spot up front, and said "I'm parking close to the front - Frank can park in the back, far away from everyone so no one touches his purty little lexus." (seriously, just like that)

As I get out of my car, Frank gets out of his car, in the same spot wayyy in the back of the parking lot, and proceeds to tell me that he was sitting there for 10min, with some weird desire to simply "stay" there. He was parked behind a car, and something "inspired" him to take a picture of that car (with it's visible license plate).

Lo & behold, an older gentleman walks out to this car, gets in and drives off. He soon realizes that he was in reverse, and bangs into the lexus. The guy seemed apologetic & sincere and they worked it all out. Although there was slight damage to the license plate & license plate holder, I can understand the frustration with the incident. "If Frank wasn't there"... "What if that happened to MY car?"

So, fast forward a day, and I get a text from Frank where a school van hit his lexus, but this time, the damage was slightly more substantial.

Sometimes, life begins to constrict, and we can feel frustration or stress clearer than in the past few days, and then something big happens. (see my write-up about my car) BAM! Spark plugs decide to "evacuate" from your car's engine, or someone does physical harm to your car (or other things that don't involve gas powered machines). WHY?!?!?

You are a disciple, you pray,you get your quiet times in, you tithe (or contribute), you've accepted that the life of a disciple is not one of luxury or earthly happiness, and yet... "WHY MY LEXUS?!?!?!" (as Frank may have said or thought, i dunno).

But we need to face it - Bad things will happen, but is that God messing up?

We all know that God isn't at fault for bad things - Bad things happen because of bad choices or human sin.

Let's admit the fact that God's protection is always around us - We probably don't even recognize half of those times. He could protect us from everything, but that would take away, not only our freedom to choose, but our opportunity to draw even closer to Him. And just as important, in most cases, we would not be able to learn from those troubles.

Although this is difficult to say when there are people with valid concerns (medical, financial, mental issues), we have to remember that none of these "bad things" means that God loves us any less. The bible never says that He will shield us from everything evil. But it does say that He would be with us through anything & everything.