The Part Of God’s Will No One WantsShembull

Is it possible for life to stink and still be God’s will?

Today I can say that the answer is yes. Throw a dart at the pages of the Bible and you’re likely to hit a character whose story could confirm that yes. Job. Paul. David. Peter. Look at Moses, journeying for years with less-than-faithful followers, coming close to the Promised Land but without getting it. Struggles, setbacks and wounds are undeniable facts of life. God’s people don’t get passed over by hardship… but hard times are the part of His plan we’d almost always choose to omit if the choice were ours to make.

The hard times might be easier to understand if our pain could always be traced to our own sinful choices or those of others. But struggles can and do befall us that we have had no hand in. In most miscarriages, nothing that the parents did caused their baby’s heart to stop beating. Sometimes the uproar of life is a natural result of choosing sin or selfishness; but just as often it is not. So how do we handle pain or heartbreak in a way that keeps us moving forward? Even if no 1-2-3 foolproof plan exists, can we at least hope in a higher way? I think we can.

Right now, I am writing with my daughter, Valerie, in my lap. If we had not suffered the miscarriage, it is possible that Valerie would not be here. Obviously, conception is God’s business. He is the giver of life. But in Kelly’s and my little microcosm of planning, the child now in heaven would have completed our family.^l We would not have tried again. Now this little blonde-haired girl sits in my lap with a fuzzy bear on her shirt and her hands on my keyboard ... and I can’t imagine life without her.

Her presence speaks to a truth we all need to grip for dear life and savor well: God is working things out during those very parts of His will we do not want. He is crafting, shaping and planning at a deeper level than we can see. He is looking at a line that stretches from eternity past to eternity future, while we are looking through a straw at a tiny black pencil dot set on that line of life. He is looking at eons of eternity at once.

Note
1. In 2 Samuel 12:22-23 David said he would go to his child upon his death.

You can get Gregg Matte’s book by clicking on Finding God's Will.