God's Plan For Good In My LifeSýnishorn

Did you see the T-shirt that said 2020 across the top and underneath had the five rating-stars? Only one star was filled in and below that it said, “Definitely would not recommend!” Seeing that shirt seems so long ago now, but it pretty much sums up what so many felt about the year 2020.

As if all the challenges that came with Covid weren’t enough, three months into quarantine I got blindsided by a serious infection (not Covid). 

Earlier that morning I’d gone for a run. I’d been thinking about all that had happened since the quarantine had started. While running I was asking God what his perspective and plan was for 2020. With all that was unfolding, what was God’s hope, and what was his ultimate plan? And then it just became so clear. I truly believe God gave me clarity to see that as uncertainty reigned, he had begun to use the events of 2020 to remove a total sense of control from every industry, community, family, and person.

Then, hours later my illness came out of nowhere when I started shaking with a fever in the middle of the night. Nine days later I was staring out of my hospital window, with a rare infection that a medical team of specialists was trying to solve. I was still in pain, was on an IV antibiotic drip, I couldn’t see my family, and I had no way of leading our church. God was allowing me to experience the most challenging health scare of my life. That’s when I turned to Psalm 13.

You know there are many Psalms where God is being praised, and there are many Psalms and scriptures where fists are being shaken at God, saying “my life makes no sense right now, where are you?” Oddly, those Psalms can actually comfort and encourage us. If David the Psalmist could be this discouraged and this honest with God, then we can too! So I found myself in that place; so discouraged and depressed, having no sense of control. I could so relate to the words of David in Psalm 13, “...how long Lord?... will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” And then I knew it again. I saw God’s big picture, where he was at work everywhere: in every industry, school system, employee and in every person’s heart. He’s been working to reset our own sense of pride and sense of control. When we feel in control, we have confidence in our own sense of being the god of our lives. God knows that when we seem to have lost all control, we are forced to look outside ourselves.

How crazy is this thought? That for years to come, we may look back on 2020 as one of God’s greatest gifts to us!  And it’s not too late. Over these ten days join me in considering scriptural examples of what God may have been doing, and may continue to do in our hearts.