A Bum Rap?

Here is a question that has been bothering me lately, let's see if it bothers you. I have been wondering, "Is God getting a bad rap from us?" (meaning us as His creation not just us Christians). I don't know if you ever watch the show but I enjoy watching the Seinfeld show. The other day I saw an episode where George was upset because he thought he had contracted some disease that he thought would kill him. He asked this question, "Why would God let this happen?" The person he was talking to said, "I didn't think you believed in God and George's reply was, "I do for the bad things."
I think Georges response is quite typical for most people today. What do we call an earthquake or tornado or hurricane? We call them an "Act of God". We never call them and "Act of Satan". It seems to me that more often than not whether we are talking about Christians or the average person on the street when bad things happen to us God seems to always be the focus of our blame. Why don't we ever say, "Why did Satan do this to me?" Instead of saying, "God why did you do this to me?" I often tell me congregation that my favorite "refrigerator verse" is John 16:33 where Jesus made us this promise, "In this world you will have trouble..."
I know this topic is much deeper than I have time to discuss in this blog but I have to wonder what our expectations of God really are and are these expectations realistic? Are they expectations grounded in the scriptures or in just our personal opinions and ideas about God? I am fully confident that God knows and sees what we go through good or bad, but I am not certain that I can find any scriptures to support the idea that He promised to eliminate all those problems. If I am not mistaken what He promised is to go with us through them. That is what the end of John 16:33 tells us, "..but fear not for I have overcome the world."
I hate it when bad things happen to me or when things don't go as I planned them to but I also don't think I can point my finger at God and tell Him that He isn't doing His job. We need to ask God to give us vision that is greater than two feet in front of us. We need God to help us see that there is much more to my life than what is happening in this moment in time.
Pastor Sheldon
PS. Now if I can just practice what I preach.