#386: If God Is Real, Why Would He Let Bad Things Happen? | 3 Stories of Faith, Forgiveness, & Healing

Kevin Lowe: And again, you come back to that question.

Kevin Lowe: If God is real, then why would he allow this to happen?

Kevin Lowe: Why would he allow all this pain and the hurt to happen?

Kevin Lowe: How could he be real if this is what I'm going through?

Kevin Lowe: Well, my friend, today, I don't claim or even pretend like I have the answers.

Kevin Lowe: But what I do have is a story, my story. A matter of fact, inside of today's episode, I have a series of stories where I'm able to show where God has been real, even in the midst of the pain.

Kevin Lowe: So my friend, if you could use some hope, if you could use a reassurance that yes, God is real, then my friend, today is for you.

Kevin Lowe: This is episode 386 of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration, and I am your host, Kevin Lowe, so honored that you have chosen to be here today cooking play on this specific episode.

Kevin Lowe: So with that, I welcome you to the podcast.

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Kevin Lowe: What's going on, my friend? And welcome back to Grit, Grace and Inspiration.

Kevin Lowe: Today's episode is coming out just two days after the Easter holiday.

Kevin Lowe: And I felt like that was such a fitting time for me to talk about a topic I've been wanting to discuss here on the podcast.

Kevin Lowe: And well, finally, the timing just felt right.

Kevin Lowe: Now, I kind of made reference to it at the beginning of the episode of this kind of disclaimer of sorts that when tackling these big questions, like if God is real, then why does he allow bad things to happen?

Kevin Lowe: As I said, I do not pretend to have the answers. I do not pretend to be somebody I'm not.

Kevin Lowe: I'm just me, a dude who's been through some stuff in life.

Kevin Lowe: And so I just bring my own perspective. That is it.

Kevin Lowe: And in that, I have some stories in my life where God has definitely been real, where He has shown up in a big way.

Kevin Lowe: And I want to share those with you today, as I said, to just hopefully give you a little bit of hope.

Kevin Lowe: Because maybe you clicked on today's episode because you're questioning your faith.

Kevin Lowe: Maybe you're questioning everything that you've known because you have prayers that have gone unanswered. or maybe you've had some stuff happen in life that's been devastating.

Kevin Lowe: And my friend, if anybody knows what you're feeling and what you're going through, it's me because I've been there.

Kevin Lowe: And well, we're all on this journey together, living in this world where nothing is perfect.

Kevin Lowe: Things go wrong all the time. There's way too much hurt, way too much pain.

Kevin Lowe: To be honest, it's part of the reason why I do this podcast in the first place is I just want to hopefully be one little piece trying to bring a smile to the world to make somebody's day a little bit brighter.

Kevin Lowe: And that's what this is all about. Now, today, as I said, I'm about to share with you three stories that have proven that, yes, God is definitely real, even in the midst of the darkness, even in the midst of the pain.

Kevin Lowe: The first story I want to share is a story that I've shared many times on the podcast, but today it's more relevant than ever before.

Kevin Lowe: I went blind unexpectedly in 2003. When I went into surgery to have the recently discovered brain tumor removed, we thought everything was going to go fine.

Kevin Lowe: Nothing that happened after was expected. Not at all.

Kevin Lowe: Not me becoming blind. Not me having all these medical complications.

Kevin Lowe: Not me remaining in the ICU for two weeks.

Kevin Lowe: No, none of that was expected.

Kevin Lowe: And when I came home, life was completely different.

Kevin Lowe: Everything I knew was gone It was destroyed I literally was trapped in a world of darkness And yet.

Kevin Lowe: There was one person who was always there with me. Now, truth be told, I have no memory of this.

Kevin Lowe: My memory doesn't pick up until quite some time after the day of surgery.

Kevin Lowe: My memory stops going into the operating room and doesn't pick up until weeks later being back home.

Kevin Lowe: And during this time in between, there was so much happening in amongst my family with me, them just trying to literally keep me alive to then my mom bringing home her son in this whole new foreign world.

Kevin Lowe: And she tells the story, and I've told it on the podcast before.

Kevin Lowe: And when I've had her on the podcast, she actually told the story how she asked me finally one morning who it was that I talked to when I go to bed at night.

Kevin Lowe: And she said that I said just so plainly, oh, Jesus, that he's always there with me.

Kevin Lowe: And that, my friend, right there, I believe, encompasses everything that faith is about.

Kevin Lowe: And it encompasses everything that I'm trying to show you today, that God is real and that God is there and that God will show up when the time is right.

Kevin Lowe: In this instance, it was just a boy, a teenage boy who had his life crumbled.

Kevin Lowe: And every night that boy would go to bed and he'd cry himself to sleep, begging and pleading that God would let him see in the morning.

Kevin Lowe: And in amongst all of that, he would have a friend.

Kevin Lowe: He would have his Savior there with him, comforting him, reminding him that it was going to be okay.

Kevin Lowe: Now, every morning I woke up, my prayers were unanswered. I never got to see again.

Kevin Lowe: It's now been over 21 years.

Kevin Lowe: The October of this year will be my 22nd anniversary of being blind.

Kevin Lowe: But God has been there with me. And that is one of the most important things that I want you to understand today is that God, He did not promise that we would have an easy life.

Kevin Lowe: He never promised that this life would be without hurt. He didn't.

Kevin Lowe: Matter of fact, this world is a flawed world. It is with sin.

Kevin Lowe: But you know what he did promise? He said if we accept him into our heart as our Lord and Savior, that he would be there with us.

Kevin Lowe: And that just like Jesus rose from the dead, so will we.

Kevin Lowe: And we can spend eternity in heaven with Jesus.

Kevin Lowe: Now, that was story number one. Story number two, though, we fast forward in my story quite a few years. We're coming way on up almost to present day.

Kevin Lowe: I definitely have a good memory of this day, of this story, very well.

Kevin Lowe: So I'm going to tell it to you from firsthand experience of how God shows up in the most unlikely of places and the most unlikely of scenarios.

Kevin Lowe: This was just an ordinary day. I'm talking like a Tuesday with nothing much is going on.

Kevin Lowe: I'm at home by myself. It's middle of the afternoon. And I decide that, you know what?

Kevin Lowe: I'm going to grab a grapefruit out of the refrigerator and have that as a snack.

Kevin Lowe: And so there I stood with a cutting board, a knife, a grapefruit, dicing up that grapefruit into quarters so that I could eat.

Kevin Lowe: And all of a sudden, tears started streaming down my face.

Kevin Lowe: There was no warning. There was no buildup. Just all of a sudden, this overflowing of emotions came over me.

Kevin Lowe: And then out of nowhere, I had the feeling come over me that I never expected I would feel. That was forgiveness.

Kevin Lowe: Forgiveness for somebody who I had swore I would never forgive because this person, And they had caused so much harm to my family that I swore I would never forgive them, not until the day I die.

Kevin Lowe: And yet here I am, standing in my kitchen, cutting up a grapefruit, and I have the most overwhelming feeling of forgiveness.

Kevin Lowe: And literally, I sat there saying out loud multiple times, I forgive you.

Kevin Lowe: I forgive you. I forgive you.

Kevin Lowe: And do you know what? All these years later, to this day, I cannot be angry at that person, even if I try.

Kevin Lowe: That person, I used to have nightmares.

Kevin Lowe: No longer do I have nightmares. No longer can I even have the first ill thought towards that person. I just can't.

Kevin Lowe: And the only way I can explain that, my friend, is through God, through the Holy Spirit.

Kevin Lowe: Completely took over me. And in that day, I was set free. I was able to forgive somebody who I swore I would never forgive.

Kevin Lowe: Because to me, forgiving them, it meant saying that what they did to my family was okay.

Kevin Lowe: And my gosh, it was not. It still isn't okay.

Kevin Lowe: But forgiveness, it's not about setting them free. It's about setting yourself free.

Kevin Lowe: And again, this is not something that I did on my own. No.

Kevin Lowe: It's something that was only made possible because of God. And God knew that at some point, I had to be set free of that burden that I carried.

Kevin Lowe: And that day, God showed up in a big way, literally lifting a weight off of my shoulders that I didn't even know I was carrying until it was gone.

Kevin Lowe: And so there it was on a Tuesday afternoon in my kitchen.

Kevin Lowe: And the most profound thing happened is I was set free. I'll see you next week.

Kevin Lowe: So sometimes when we can't do it for ourself, well, God shows up for us.

Kevin Lowe: When the timing is right, and my friend, timing, God's timing, that's a whole other day's topic.

Kevin Lowe: Only he knows when it's right. But I encourage you, if maybe you've been holding on to something, if there's somebody who's done you or your family wrong that you've been holding on to, my friend, I'm not going to begin to tell you that you should forgive them.

Kevin Lowe: No, all I am going to tell you, though, is I want you to know there is hope and that through the power of the Holy Spirit, I was able to be set free.

Kevin Lowe: And I'm here today to tell you that God is alive and well in all forms of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Kevin Lowe: That day, the Holy Spirit set me free of a burden that I had been carrying for way too long.

Kevin Lowe: Then there's story number three A story that I've shared on the podcast But it's been quite some time And again If you want to know if God is real, In the midst of the bad In the midst of the stuff that has you asking If God is real Why does he allow this to happen?

Kevin Lowe: He showed up in a big way My sister, she suffers from a complicated medical issue And at the time that this story takes place, she'd been going through a lot.

Kevin Lowe: Trips to the ER, 911 calls, racing to the emergency room.

Kevin Lowe: It had become just part of our weekly routine.

Kevin Lowe: In this day, though, it was the same situation. We find ourselves back at the hospital in the ER.

Kevin Lowe: She's not doing good. She was doing really bad.

Kevin Lowe: The doctors, they didn't know what to do. They were calling in transport, saying that she needed to be sent to another hospital, a bigger hospital.

Kevin Lowe: And at the same time, sitting before me was my sister, who literally I didn't think was going to make it that day. None of us did.

Kevin Lowe: And there she laid in her hospital bed. I was in the room with my mom, my dad. And I can remember all of a sudden saying to my mom, and it was late one night.

Kevin Lowe: By this point, I'm going to say it was probably around about nine o'clock at night. And I asked her if she had the phone number for our pastor.

Kevin Lowe: Thank goodness she did. And I asked her to please call.

Kevin Lowe: And she started to hesitate. And I said, no, mom, please, please call.

Kevin Lowe: She did. And she handed the phone to me. And our pastor, praise Jesus, he answered the phone.

Kevin Lowe: And I told him what was going on. And I literally was just calling because I wanted to tell him and ask him if he could start praying and if he could start spreading the word about what was happening to get a prayer chain going because my friend, I know the power of prayer.

Kevin Lowe: But what happened next was incredible because right before we were about to hang up, my pastor, he said, well, let me go ahead and pray with you right now.

Kevin Lowe: And so there I was in a chair at the foot of the bed and holding the phone to my ear, I started praying with my pastor.

Kevin Lowe: Now, what I didn't realize, being blind, of course, my head bowed, was that while I was praying, my sister was starting to move.

Kevin Lowe: She was starting to recover. And my friend, by the time that I said amen, my sister sat up in bed. She was ready to go home.

Kevin Lowe: Literally in the time that we prayed, God healed my sister.

Kevin Lowe: Now, what was amazing was in that room that day was somebody who didn't believe in God, isn't a Christian.

Kevin Lowe: And yet they saw what happened. Right before their very eyes, they saw.

Kevin Lowe: They heard me on the phone. They heard me say amen.

Kevin Lowe: And they witnessed my sister sit up in bed, completely well, ready to go home.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, I share these stories. again, reminding you that in this life and in this world, we're going to go through hard times.

Kevin Lowe: It's just part of life, but we don't have to go through them alone.

Kevin Lowe: And I also remind you that a lot of times it feels like God isn't answering our prayers because times will go by where nothing is happening.

Kevin Lowe: Remember, this year, October of 2025 will be 22 years that I've been completely blind.

Kevin Lowe: But that doesn't mean that God isn't there. Because what we have to understand, as hard as it is to understand, is that God's plans are bigger than our own.

Kevin Lowe: I believe they're better than our own.

Kevin Lowe: But when heartache is involved, it doesn't make them easy.

Kevin Lowe: I never would have chosen to become blind. I never would have chosen that my sister had to have this complicated medical issue.

Kevin Lowe: But you know what? to see us through it has been God.

Kevin Lowe: It's been my amazing faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross that day for me, for you, and proved to the world that in fact, he would rise again on Sunday, two days later.

Kevin Lowe: We celebrate Good Friday, the day that Jesus died on the cross for us, for our sins, so that we can have everlasting eternity in heaven with him.

Kevin Lowe: And just as he promised, he would rise again. The tomb would be left empty.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, I can't make it in this life without Jesus Christ.

Kevin Lowe: I don't know how anybody does because I know I couldn't.

Kevin Lowe: My faith, my relationship with Jesus is the only way that I'm here today.

Kevin Lowe: And it's the only way that I'll be able to continue on with this life because, my gosh, my friend, this life is way too tough for me to dare think that I could try to walk it without Jesus by my side.

Kevin Lowe: My friend, I encourage you that if you don't already have a relationship with your creator, I encourage you to really explore it and understand that it doesn't take anything special.

Kevin Lowe: It doesn't mean that you have to be some perfect person.

Kevin Lowe: No, it doesn't mean that at all. It just simply means that you want to have a relationship with your Creator, accepting and understanding that Jesus is the Son of Christ, that He died on the cross but rose again.

Kevin Lowe: And whoever should believe in him can have everlasting eternity in heaven with him.

Kevin Lowe: I understand today's episode was different than most, but here we are, the week of Easter, and it just felt right.

Kevin Lowe: And if anything, if you're still here, I just hope and pray that something I said today can bring you the hope and the comfort and the peace that you were looking for.

Kevin Lowe: Now, my friend, before I end, I will let you know that if you would love to have an extra dose of encouragement to start out your week, in addition to the podcast, I also write a weekly newsletter called Where Grit Meets Grace.

Kevin Lowe: It's available to you for free.

Kevin Lowe: It lands in your inbox each Monday morning just to be that little bit of extra help you need to make the week possible.

Kevin Lowe: So if you would love to start receiving this free newsletter, please be sure to click the link at the top of today's show notes where you can get signed up.

Kevin Lowe: Or you can also just head on over to the website.

Kevin Lowe: Gritgraceinspiration.com, and you will find a sign-up form right there on the website to sign up for the weekly newsletter called Where Grit Meets Grace.

Kevin Lowe: Until next time, my friend, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe. And this, of course, was another episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

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