Trusting God When it Makes no Sense
Since the news that a dear friend was facing a life-or-death health issue, my heart has churned with those two options – life or death. As you may have read in my blogs on Saturday and Sunday, my friend’s life was in the balance. She waited months for a donor for a heart transplant that she needed to survive. And, thanks be to God, a donor was found on Saturday. Sunday was the surgery and, praise God, Becky’s new heart is pumping away. And, I am praying the donor’s family are sensing certain blessing that their son or daughter, husband or wife live on in Becky.
This day, Monday, the day after the surgery I am musing about what would it have looked and felt like if the donor had not been found or if the new heart hadn’t started pumping. What would our thoughts be today? Would we have placed our broken hearts into the hands of our sovereign, all-knowing God and trusted Him?
I ask God to give me the words for my daily posts, and today, I am compelled to share these words. Perhaps your heart is breaking because your prayers weren’t answered the way you had hoped. In fact, you don’t know if you’ll survive the pain and heartbreak. You are on my mind.
I heard a minister share that when his dad was very ill and in much pain, he thought his dad might take his own life. His Christian psychologist offered this advice: “We pray that he won’t, but you may be right. He just might. And it would be painful for you, but you will be okay, because you will still trust in God’s sovereignty. You will bounce back because you will hold to your faith and you will live on with hope and determination. I know the storms you’ve come through. You will survive.” The minister’s father lived beyond that time and his last days were filled with sweet times with his family and friends.
This weekend, while Becky was experiencing a miracle, another dear friend of mine was remininiscing the passing of his young wife ten years ago. I’ve admired his courage and faith in standing strong while carrying on in raising their three young children. Despite the pain and challenges as a young widower, he and his children have survived and thrived.
As heart-breaking as any of our stories may be or have been, those of us who have a relationship with God – find THE LIGHT at the end of the tunnel. Yes there is a healing process, but with God’s abiding love, we make it. I survived and so will you if you hold onto God’s unchanging hand. Yes, it hurts. But we will be okay because we still trust in God’s plans and purposes for our lives. We bounce back, and we live on with hope and determination. We carry on — that is, those of us who know that this life is just a breath, compared to eternity. We live another day and rejoice in our ability to stand strong in the face of overwhelming circumstances — not in our own strength, but in His strength. “But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
On this side of eternity, we don’t always see how God takes the broken pieces and creates something beautiful with them, but we can have peace in knowing that He will redeem the pain in His perfect timing. Perhaps some of the good He will bring is to use the pain to bring us closer to Him or bring us into a relationship with Him for the very first time. Eventually, we’ll get to the place He wants us to be. In the meantime, we still trust in God even when it doesn’t make sense.