Dealing with Adversity in Life
May 22, 2023
This week I’ve talked to a number of people who have had their worlds rocked by things that were totally out of their control. I bet this is true in some way for most all of you as well. Most of us don’t get very far along in life without experiencing some devastating and life-altering, totally unwelcome events and circumstances.
It is very challenging. There are no easy Sunday-school answers, no television episodes where the solution is found in 30-60 minutes. These are incredible difficulties that can even lead to Christians whom we perceive as very strong doubting God.
All human beings have a deep desire to know and understand. We spend much of our mental time trying to figure things out. We say, “If I knew the why, I could process and be more accepting of the situation.”
Or “If I knew there was an end to the pain, I could deal with it.”
Or “If I knew it was actually accomplishing something wonderful, I could hang on…”
But the truth is, peace is never to be found that way. Your peace is not to be found in figuring your life out, but in trusting the One who has it all figured out.
That’s easy to say but challenging to accept and truly live. Over my lifetime, I have come to learn that theology tries to answer all the questions, but the very best theology can never remove the questions of life.
Some people will urge you to just grab on to the promises of Almighty God, but the promises of God will only take you so far in answering the questions and difficulty in trying to figure everything out.
There will be moments when you don’t know why this happened or why this didn’t happen. You won’t understand what is going on. You will not find a reason. You will face times in life when you tell yourself that God is good, He has promised to bring good things into your life, and He will work everything together for good. But even while you claim that promise, it doesn’t seem good. As a matter of fact, it may be flat-out awful, painful, confusing, and chaotic. What then?
Here is what I have learned through reading the testimonies of biblical heroes, the people I have witnessed who live life triumphantly, and through my own journey: If we believe that our faith or our relationship with God gives us the ability to understand everything, then we can be sure that we will eventually be disappointed and disillusioned, and our faith in God will begin to weaken and suffer. We need faith in HIM. Not in OUTCOMES.
I want to urge you to constantly remind yourself again and again that God is all-wise and is in complete loving control—not because that will immediately make your life make sense, but because it will give you rest and peace in those moments that all of us face at one time or another—when life doesn’t seem to make any sense.
In reality, no one can make sense out of life; we can’t make sense out of life without living life in the light of eternity. This is how I want to understand life and live it:
Just because I believe in God, trust God, love God, and follow Jesus as closely as I can doesn’t mean that everything will be happily ever after. Sometimes the journey is not happy, and it doesn’t always end the way in which we have believed and prayed. Hebrews 11 teaches us that some of God’s very best people, the ones He calls out as faithful and points to as examples, didn’t get rescued in the way they had hoped. But they found peace and rest in trusting the One who knows them best and loves them most.
Out of profound disappointment and grief, Babbie Mason learned to trust God in this way. The words of her song lift my eyes and my heart in the dark days:
All things work for our good
Though sometimes we don't see how they could
Struggles that break our hearts in two
Sometimes blind us to the truth
Our Father knows what's best for us
His ways are not our own
So when your pathway grows dim
And you just don't see Him,
Remember you're never alone.
God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart
Trust His heart
He sees the master plan
And He holds our future in His hand
So don't live as those who have no hope
All our hope is found in Him.
We see the present clearly
But He sees the first and the last
And like a tapestry He's weaving you and me
To someday be just like Him
God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart
He alone is faithful and true
He alone knows what is best for you.
God is too wise to be mistaken
God is too good to be unkind
So when you don't understand
When don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart
When you don't understand
When you don't see His plan
When you can't trace His hand
Trust His heart
Trust His heart