(Written by Will Shehee)

My family has been wholeheartedly serving the Lord as missionaries in Uganda for over 3 years. And where did it land us? Our van is totaled, our 5 week old baby is dead, and my wife still can’t even walk.

Where are you at with that? (Be honest.) Naturally, some of you may be offended on our behalf. “Is this how God repays this family who has sacrificed so much to serve Him? How could I serve a God like that?”

The same sort of thing happened with John the Baptist. He served the Lord more sacrificially than any other man in history. Where did it land him? Chained and shamed in a dungeon.

Naturally, some of his friends were offended with Jesus. “Is this how God repays His servants?” But John sent them to the only One with the answers – Jesus. He gave no explanations nor promises for deliverance. After affirming that He was indeed the Messiah, He simply said this one statement, the statement that needs to be said to everyone in a difficult situation: “Blessed is he who does not TAKE OFFENSE at Me.” (Matthew 11:6).

I have been through the Hell of trauma. The accident replays through my mind like a reoccurring nightmare. I had to watch my van smash into the back of a parked tanker truck going 55 miles per hour down the highway. I had to hear my wife come back to consciousness and begin begging me to unpin her legs from the van that folded in all around them. I had to watch my newborn baby, the prized jewel of our family, breath her last breath. I had to be the one to tell my wife that our baby is dead. I pray you will never have to have that conversation with any child’s mother.

But I am here to say, 2 months later, the same thing I said 24 hours later: God is completely worthy of my trust. His character is good. His power is unchallenged. I am not offended.

And He is completely worthy of YOUR trust as well.

I challenge you. Search your heart right now. Are you offended with God? Is there something that happened to you or someone who you care for, someone whom you regard as a good person, someone who does not deserve what they have suffered?

You don’t need to understand WHY. All you need to understand is that God is good, and He knows what He is doing. Trust Him. Trust in the integrity of His character. Trust that one day, when this life is over, you will have full understanding about why this happened and be in full agreement with God’s leadership…

When you are offended with man, you are called to forgive. But when you are offended with God, you are called to trust.

Let go of that offense and TRUST. Surrender. And let Him wash away all the offense and anger and fear and depression. And enter into the “blessedness” of being unoffended with Jesus.