Life is hard, but God is good

The above is a line from a song I remember well from the 90s. It was written by Pam Thum and was sung to encourage the congregation on a Sunday morning by a man who had gone through a very painful divorce. I remember thinking at the time how hard it must be for him to sing that song with all that he had gone through, and that if he could still sing those lyrics then I should be doing the same. My mom was going through chemotherapy at the time for ovarian cancer, and we were suffering right along with her, praying for a miracle. It was a little harder for me to trust God at this point – I have a minor in Biology, and I worked through college filing paperwork at a medical clinic with oncologists on staff. I knew all the percentages and I was struggling at times to say what needed to be said, which was “Your will be done.” I knew that God had the power to heal any disease – I never doubted that. But I also understood that His ways are not our ways, and that His plans are often different than ours. And that terrified me.

Fast forward thirty years and those truths are still true. God’s ways are not our ways, and His plans are often different than ours. But the longer I walk with Him the easier it is to remember that He is good. The older I get the easier it is to see how much of my everyday life is GOOD. It is because my God is good that I have the hope I need to get through the tough times. It is because of the goodness of God that I am a wife, a mother and a grandmother, as well as a daughter and sister and aunt. His goodness has seen me through a miscarriage, my mother’s death, my mother-in-law’s death, a cross-country move, three children, EOD school (THAT will deepen your prayer life!), two children married, one deployment, one child overseas, and the birth of two grandsons. At this point in my life, I believe Ms. Thum got it backwards. I think God is good even though life sometimes in’t  is more accurate.  God is good, He is faithful, He is true, He is love. He is all we need, any day, every day. 

See you at church for worship on Sunday!

This is my story, this is my song, I’m praising my risen King and Savior all the day long

Careen