Peace In The Storm

"In the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God."
St. John of the Cross

It’s been an intense and difficult period of suffering and challenge in my and my family’s life recently, with one issue after another, and we are drained and weary, yet still always grateful and thankful. Sometimes life can become such a wound that even silence feels too loud, and the weary heart folds in on itself. Yet we know that “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him” (Romans 8:28) – meaning that even through suffering, setbacks, or uncertainty, God is at work in the lives of believers, shaping events toward a greater good.

But God’s work of this kind also depends on the enabling of our free choices, which impose short term costs and suffering, as we make mistakes and get things wrong along the way. This raises an intriguing matter; is it impossible for Christians to act in a way that either fails to accomplish or limits God’s plan for the greater good? It would seem not. Therefore, our free choices do not enable us to thwart God’s ultimate plan for our betterment, because even though we make choices that impede our well-being in the short term, God’s genius sees to it in the overall narrative that every decision or event, good or bad in the short term, is supremely good in the long term.

I’ve been pondering where and how God might be working in this current very strange and difficult storm. When lots of challenges come crashing into life, causing pain and uncertainty in their wake - still, we have to have faith in the above narrative, as per Romans 8, and consider what God might be doing in allowing all that to happen. I suppose the first thing to bring to bear on the situation is that the first paragraph I wrote invites us to marvel at God’s ability to transform all these things into ultimate good, where His genius can weave even the darkest threads into a tapestry of redemption. I’m sure that all the consequences of the misfortunes can be woven into a deeper renewal, when there is always opportunity for bigger redemption and more of a powerful external influence on others that can bear fruit in testimony – a kind of “This befell us” …”But as a result, we learned this and that, and grew from it” testimony. I suppose that is part of what redemption is – using everything bad to grow bigger than the thing that was bad, and becoming stronger and wiser – where the wisdom gained may become a lifeline to others walking similar roads.

I’m not sure quite what God is doing in this current situation – it all feels like a bit of a mess. But experience has taught me that God uses our messes to do all sorts of things in the longer term that we are unlikely to pick up on in the midst of them; things like adjusting false ideas; rewriting the family story to increase mercy, reliance and dependence; allowing some earthly footings to shake, so that we might find a deeper, firmer foundation in some issue - those sorts of lessons – and of course, all these serve well in administering a healthy spiritual lesson in humility and trust.

I guess, to close this reflection, my prayer would be; “Lord, I don’t see how everything that’s happening right now is good, but I know You are good.”, and invite further peace, energy and discernment at each stage.