Keep living out your faith and in time, you’ll understand the heart of God in every one of your hardships. There is a time for everything – and it includes your understanding of God’s plan.
I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, always happy to share God’s hope.
And it’s a hope-filled story that I share today. It’s about my friend Charlie who, when he was a teenager, was struggling to understand God’s purpose for his life. And what made his struggle especially hard is that Charlie has cerebral palsy. I’ll never forget our conversation. Looking down at his twisted arms and legs in his wheelchair, he said, “Joni, what possible purpose could there be in my suffering?” Now, his question could be anybody’s. It could be yours. We all come up against hard times, deep disappointments, a bad medical condition. And we struggle to understand God’s purpose in it all. And if you feel like I’m speaking to you today, let me share with you what I told Charlie. Because understanding God’s purposes in our suffering cannot be answered in a few sentences. Or even in a book. It can’t be answered in a single conversation, or even many conversations.
It's because God’s answers and purposes in suffering have to be lived out in order to understand them. And that takes time and a lot of trust in God. When something disappointing occurs, an accident, a loss – it’s impossible, impossible to know the purposes God has in mind, at least right then and there. Because let me repeat: God’s purposes have to be lived out over time in order to understand them. That’s the way he designed it. But don’t be deterred, and certainly do not be discouraged. Take heart. Because the God of the Bible is a God of purpose. And not just general purposes, but specific ones. He is the supreme strategic planner of the universe, and he does absolutely nothing in your life that is random or haphazard. But God is more than simply a purposeful creator. He is good. Oh, he is so good. He is more good than you can simply grasp. And God demonstrates that goodness most clearly in the gift of his son, our savior. Everything, absolutely everything, revolves around that event at calvary. It’s a big plan that our good and perfect God is working out, and you are a part of it. And so is your suffering.
That’s what I told Charlie when he was a teenager. And over time as he went deep into God’s Word; as he trusted God that even his cerebral palsy had a purpose; over time as Charlie stepped out in faith and believed more things, even greater things about God. The Lord’s purposes became clear. In fact, not long ago, Charlie told me how he felt that his cerebral palsy gave such depth to his story; it backed up his testimony about Jesus. And slowly, Charlie saw that everything, absolutely everything in his life revolves around Christ. And he told me something else; it took quite a while to understand that and accept it.
Ecclesiastes 3 says, “There is a time for everything…” That simple scripture assures you that everything has its time – including understanding God’s purpose in your suffering. And so, if you have questions about your hardships, or about why things have happened as they have, remember those two words: time and trust. Keep trusting in God, friend. Keep believing his promises. Like Charlie, keep acting on his Word. Keep living out your faith. And in time, or perhaps beyond time, you will understand the heart of God in every one of your hardships. Yes, there is a time for everything – and it includes your understanding of God’s plan. And remember this, that plan always revolves around his son, Jesus Christ.
© Joni and Friends