Years ago my wife and I went through a church split. If you’ve ever gone through one you know how painful that is. I’ll talk more about that specifically in a future post.
In all my years, I’ve found life is hard, but God is still good.
I’ve also found church is full of messy people—people who are hurting, broken, fragile, and scared. But it’s also full of people who are full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, compassion, and scars of past hurts.
The common denominator: everyone has some kind of pain.
There’s nothing easy about following Jesus.
Whoever sold you the lie that it’s easy to truly follow Jesus then they probably don’t understand what Jesus meant when He said, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”
As I write this the thought comes to mind that even though life is hard and God is still good life is still messy.
But God is in the business of turning messes into masterpieces.
My life has been one of mess after mess as I’m sure many of you can relate.
When I wrote my book, Redeem the Story: A Call to Let God Rewrite Your Story, I was able to accomplish the dream of signing with a real literary agent. After months of rejection letter after rejection letter and publishers telling me they loved my writing but couldn’t publish my book because of my platform, discouragement set in.
My life was a mess because I set my focus on a publisher rather than writing what God placed in my heart.
I got caught up on wanting the big Christian publishers to pick up my book.
I wanted the notoriety that came with publishing with one of the big names.
Obviously my heart was not right.
When my focus finally shifted after multiple rejection letters I was able to finish the book, self-publish it, and know I walked in obedience.
The number of book sales doesn’t determine my obedience. Even if the book never sells more than 1,000 copies—I know I’ve obeyed God and written and published what He put in my heart. He always honors obedience!
What in your life right now is a mess?
Are you struggling to find the good among the thorns?
Today, I just want to encourage you—even in the mess God is still good!
Even in the mess of life—because we all know life is messy—God is in the business of redeeming stories, rewriting pain, and painting new masterpieces.
Tonight, two of my boys have fevers. Our house needs a good clean up. I’ve got a very busy day tomorrow. I’ve got to get two sermons ready to preach over the next few weeks.
Life never slows down so you can deal with your mess.
You have to learn to trust God in your mess while life continues on.
The beautiful thing is there’s nothing God can’t handle. He’s God!
Whether your pain is church-related (like a church split), self-inflicted, emotional, or anything else—I pray you can see the good in life still. There’s so much I could say, but tonight I sincerely believe this is all I’m supposed to say.
If I had to sum it up it’d be this: Life is hard, but God is still good!
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Life is hard but God is good, and all the time he is good!
I do hope your children will recover very soon, Aaron.
This essay reminded me of the saying, "While reaching for life's roses, we bleed among the thorns."
My uncle, who's 92 now, is fond of saying life is sometimes like the reverse side of a beautiful embroidery—a chaotic mess. But someday we will see only the beauty.
God knows us in Christ, and is involved in our lives. He will work out His purposes to His glory, and then take us home.