Austin's Blog

There are moments in life when God’s plan seems out of step with our expectations or even His character. We pray for healing, yet disease still ravages. We cry out for protection, but pain finds us anyway. Sometimes, God allows what He hates—sickness, loss, and suffering—to accomplish what He loves, ultimately shaping us for our good. We are not promised a life free of storms. In fact, Jesus assured us, “In this world, you will have trouble” (John 16:33). The promise we hold onto isn’t that the storms won’t come, but that Jesus will be with us through each one. Just as He was with the disciples in the boat during the storm, He is with us in our darkest nights of grief.

So, what do we do when our expectations don’t align with what we read, believe, or have been taught?

Faith often requires that we let go of our understanding and instead trust in God’s character. We must doubt our doubts. Sometimes, we simply have to trust God when things don’t make sense. After all, we are dealing with a real person—an infinite God whose ways are often beyond our comprehension. C.S. Lewis captures this idea well when he says:

“You are no longer faced with an argument which demands your assent, but with a Person who demands your confidence… It is one thing to ask in vacuo whether So-and-So will join us tonight, and another to discuss this when So-and-So’s honor is pledged to come and some great matter depends on his coming… In the second [case], continued expectation far into the night would be due to our friend’s character if we had found him reliable before. Which of us would not feel slightly ashamed if, one moment after we had given him up, he arrived with a full explanation of his delay? We should feel that we ought to have known him better.”

If God has been faithful in the past, we must suspend our judgment during trials that seem to contradict what we’ve previously known or experienced. His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9). As Charles Spurgeon writes in his sermon A Happy Christian:

“The worldling blesses God while He gives him plenty, but the Christian blesses Him when He smites him: he believes Him to be too wise to err and too good to be unkind; he trusts Him where he cannot trace Him, looks up to Him in the darkest hour, and believes that all is well.”

Though the clouds of pain may block the sun, there are always silver linings of God’s grace. He will never abandon us. The tomb may seem final, but standing outside every tomb in our lives is Jesus, offering hope.

“When you can’t trace His hand,
When you don’t see His plan,
When you don’t understand,
Trust His heart.”