I Don't Understand

I don't understand why people wait until they're dying or very ill or in a terrible situation before they turn to God for help.  I really don't understand this, and even wrote a poem a long time ago, which is below.  God wants us to come to Him as our Father and He longs to fellowship with us.  It's not about religion - it's about relationship - our relationship with Jesus.  Relationship is so important.  It's actually the most important relationship we can ever have in our lives.  And if that is true, then I believe we should pursue it wholeheartedly, with honest desire long before we are old or dying or up against a spiritual wall. 

God wants us to choose to love and seek Him - He would never force us.  Just like our children - we long for them to love us but we would never try to force them to do so.  That would not only be ridiculous, but it would not be real love.  And so it is with God. 

I hope I don't sound like an annoying know-it-all.  I'm really just expressing something I have never understood.  Because I have depended on God most of my adult life, I don't know how people can function without Him.  I have joy, I have peace and most of all, I have hope.  If my hope was in this life only, how shallow and disappointing that would be.  I'm definitely not perfect - not even near - but like the bumper sticker says, I am forgiven.  Thank God for His mercy and grace.

What I have said to my friends who claim to be athiests or just follks who don't think God is important, is that if I am wrong and there is no God, I really won't have anything to lose.  I lived a good life and I am at peace.  But, if there is a God as I believe, then you have everything to lose.  I choose not to gamble my eternity - it's far too important.

I have some questions I must ask
            to understand your mind;
                        is it your pride or foolishness
                                    or just from being blind?

How can you just ignore the fact

            He gave His life for you?
                        His blood and pain was for your soul,
                                    and yet you never knew.

 How can you live your life as though

            the end you'll never see?
                        yet though, not knowing, you decide
                                   where you'll spend eternity.

 What do you think about at night

            before you fall asleep?
                        does fear or emptiness appear
                                    or do you simply weep?

 Do memories invade your thoughts

            and plague you with your past?
                        and have you ever wondered
                                    why your happiness won't last?

Why do you look beyond the One

            Who holds the very key?
                        of life and love and peace within
                                    the kind your soul does seek.

It's really not as difficult

            as you make it out to be;
                        turn to the One Who loved you first
                                    then love, for once, you'll see.