We can trust our God-He knows what He's doing.

I just heard this song for the first time yesterday evening, and I just felt that it said everything I have needed to hear for the past week or so. With everything that has been going on, I have said many times "Where is God?! How could he have let this happen?!" I was just talking to my mom last night and she said something along the lines of "Why would God send Lonnie on this journey only to have him not end up being able to do ministry? I just don't get it." And then I went to Lonnie's memorial service in Grand Rapids today, and I thought that the minister summarized it very well. He said:

"God didn't tell us that we need to understand what he was doing, we just need to trust Him." 

I have thought about this a lot over the past few days, what if God sent Lonnie to Concordia so that they could meet all these people who would become their family so that when this struggle, and this battle came they would have people to help them fight? What if God sent Lonnie to Concordia so that he could teach lessons to hundreds of people through his story? When we first look at the story, all we see is the pain, the fight, the struggle. But God did have a master plan throughout all of this. He was with us then, is now, and will be forever. He will never leave us, and he never left Amy and Lonnie. He has a plan, and even though we may not see it in entirety now, when we get to heaven and see the big picture our minds will be blown. 

I thought of another thing last night: This is just a chapter. Cancer was just part of Lonnie's story, it wasn't the entire thing. I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in parts of our lives that we forget that it is only a small sliver of our story, of our testimony. And, all stories have hard/bad parts. Even Jesus life wasn't a field of daises. He was born in a barn, mocked and ridiculed his entire life until he was brutally murdered on a cross. But then: He was reunited with God, his father in heaven. Just like we will be.

So here is my random thought of the day for you: Trust God. He knows what he is doing. Things may be rough right now, but he hasn't left you. This is just a scene in your movie, a chapter in your story that may seem awful right now, but I promise it will lead to a beautiful ending: Heaven. So don't get discouraged, don't let life take you down. It's only a season, and it will too come to pass.