God Is Good All the Time: Even When It's Hard

Today has been a sad day. Lately, it seems like every time I turn around, I am hearing another heartbreaking story.

My daughter's preschool teacher is busy today making plans to bury a teenage child. Not seeing her today at the door to the classroom with her bubbly smile and take charge attitude was hard. Her team teacher looked defeated today; bogged down with worry and concern for her friend and co-worker.

Another friend is remembering 5 years ago this week when her mother lost her battle with cancer. This week always brings back a flood of memories, not all good. I know her heart is hurting. She still misses her mother.

A good friend who desperately wants a baby is having complications with her pregnancy and might well lose this baby, too. My heart is breaking for her. For the raw pain and the broken dreams. It reminds me all too well that babies are not an easy thing to bring into this world. While I pray for the health of the baby and mother clinging to hope, it's hard not to wonder why God, why.

Knowing that mother's hearts are breaking and daughter's heart are longing for their mother is hard on this mother's heart.

Wishing I could take the pain away. Knowing that only God can.

There are days that the news just isn't good. That the promises of God seem so far away. When it's hard to believe that in the midst of our pain God is right there.

But He Is. He is there for my friends. He is there for the grieving parents. He is there for the lonely daughter. He is there for me. He is there for you.

One of the ways that He is there for them is with hope. Hope that today's sadness will one day be overtaken by joy at seeing their loved one again; whole, healthy, safe in the arms of Jesus, in Heaven.

Steven Curtis Chapman's Song, With Hope, has always been a song I cling to in times of sorrow or grief. It speaks so clearly of the everlasting hope we have. I pray that this song will bring my friends Comfort, Peace, Hope.

With Hope by Steven Curtis Chapman
This is not at all how
We thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams
And now you've gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile
And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but ...

We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope'
Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope'
'Cause we believe with hope(There's a place by God's grace)
There's a place where we'll see your face again
We'll see your face again

And never have I known
Anything so hard to understand
And never have I questioned more
The wisdom of God's plan
But through the cloud of tears
I see the Father's smile and say well done
And I imagine you
Where you wanted most to be
Seeing all your dreams come true
'Cause now you're home
And now you're free, and ...

We have this hope as an anchor'
Cause we believe that everything
God promised us is true, so ...

So we can cry with hope
And say goodbye with hope
We wait with hope
And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope
We let go with hope