Life is hard…

But God is good!

Our school family has undergone a tragic loss in the past two days. Our director’s wife suffered an aneurysm during a lunch meeting on Thursday and passed away on Friday evening. It is so shocking and so sad, but through the past two days we have seen God’s mighty hand at work. We prayed for a miracle healing and while we didn’t see that we saw something even mightier. We saw the church from all over the world pulling together in prayer for this family, we saw God’s grace and peace evident in family members.

Friday was a long, hard day for all of us at school. The gravity of this tragedy hit us all students and teachers alike. Friday afternoon, I was on Facebook, watching for updates and I saw that one of my students had posted “Life is hard…” and I had one immediate thought, “Yes it is, but God is good.” 

Later in the evening, I was having a conversation with another teacher, we were talking about how God supplies the grace and peace we need through the hard times. We both have experienced the loss of a loved one and both are amazed at the calm that can only come from God during that painful time. We both asked the question, “How do people go through this without the hope that we have?”

After that conversation and several hours of staring mindlessly at the TV, I went to bed with the thought, “Life is hard, but God is good.”  I had trouble falling asleep and kept thinking of all the ways life is hard. That is morbid thinking, but what followed was precious. What followed were thoughts of how God is good through each of those hard times.

We lose loved ones, but God provides the strength to endure, to calm and peace that passes all understanding, the wisdom to be able to function despite our confusion and hurt. We have financial hardships, God provides exactly what we need, when we need it. We have health problems, God heals or provides the strength to endure. We are lonely, God reminds us that we are never lonely. We are confused, God provides wisdom. We are empty, God fills us. We are exhausted, God provides rest. We are anxious, God gives us peace.

That list can go on and on,  but with each struggle – God provides what is good. He provides what is good, because He is good. My final thought before falling asleep was the chorus to a song, that is always a joy to sing, a song that I heard every morning at the hotel in the Philippines on my last trip there,

God is good, all the time
He put a song of praise in this heart of mine
God is good, all the time

Life is hard, but God is good. He is our ever present help in times of trouble. He is our comforter. He is our great provider. He is our healer. He gives good gifts to His children.

My boss, his family, our school are in for hard times, but we all trust in God’s unfailing goodness. Please continue to pray with us and for us during this hard time.