Sometimes it feels like my life is falling apart. Relationships end unexpectedly, family members get sick, things that are important to me get taken away. One day I am at the top of the mountain and the next I’m sitting in the valley.
I know God is good all the time. I know He is all-powerful. I know He loves me unconditionally. But if all of that is true, I find myself asking why He lets bad things happen to good people? Why does He let us be sad and frustrated? Why doesn’t He just take it away?
Over time, I’ve learned the hard truth; that being a Christian doesn’t save you from bad things happening. God lets these things happen to us because His plan for our life is more about who we are becoming and less about what we are doing. His goal is not our comfort, but our character - becoming like Jesus.
However, being a Christian does mean that you have God to walk through the bad things with you. It’s true that joy comes, but it is not without facing sadness first. We are able to face hard things because we trust that God’s joy will meet us on the other side. (Psalm 30:5)
Psalm 23:4 reminds us of this - “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” It tells us that as Christians the “darkest valley” is an expected part of living life as a Christian, but it also tells us that the valley is not a permanent experience. We will eventually pass through, knowing all the more what He is. We will pass through heartbreak to know that He heals broken hearts. We will pass through sickness to know that He is a healer. We will pass through disappointment to know that He has our best interests at heart.
Our lives will never be perfect. There are things in our future that we will never see coming. We never know what God is up to in the moment, but we know He has our whole life planned out for us. As Christians, we live by faith and not by sight. We understand life can be hard and embrace the current season we’re in, expecting good things to come. We do not put our hope in a circumstance changing, but rather in His unchanging promise. That He has a plan for our lives and is good in the valley and at the mountaintop.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
Written by: Kelli Gaus