Can All of His Paths Be Good?

In this broken world we will have trouble. Jesus told us that trials and suffering are not a possibility in this world, they are a guarantee (John 16:33). The waves of grief in life threaten to knock us down. They unsettle us and cause our hearts to question the wisdom, power and goodness of God. In turbulent times, we drag God into our courtrooms and accuse him. We indict others who have hurt and wounded us. We condemn ourselves for the mistakes we have made and the sins we have committed. The suffering we experience in life can threaten to undo us.

Though suffering is guaranteed to us in life, we have a precious promise from our Savior within it: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The tribulations in life leave us with a choice: we will either harden our hearts and turn our faces away from our Heavenly Father, or we will see that our Savior has woven himself into our painful experiences. We have to choose which view to take.

Amy Carmichael intimately knew the choice that is set before us in suffering. Amy was a missionary in India in the early 1900’s. She spent the bulk of her time rescuing and caring for children who were slaves in the local temples. Countless women and children were given a second chance in life because of Amy’s brave and selfless service. You would expect God to reward her for her efforts with a long and peaceful life. Yet, the final chapter of her story is a curious one. Thirty years into her work in India, Amy suffered a fall that left her bedridden and in terrible pain for most of the final two decades of her life.  

Amy’s last twenty years were spent wrestling with God as wave after wave of grief, disappointment and pain washed over her. She continually fought the urge to entertain thoughts of what could have been. What if she had not fallen? What if she had not been in that particular place at that particular time? Could she have escaped this injury? Why would God allow this to happen to her? Hadn’t she done enough to serve him? Was he punishing her for some wrong she had committed? This tribulation didn’t make sense.

During this season, Amy wrote about this temptation to judge God. She said, “We see hardly one inch of the narrow lane of time. To our God, eternity lies open as a meadow. It must seem strange to the heavenly people, who have reached the beautiful End, that you and I should ever question what Love allows to be, or that we ever call prayer ‘unanswered’ when it is not what we expect.” Taking a woman who did such incredible good for the people of India and putting her in a bed for 20 years, hardly seems like a wise use of resources. It is easy to judge God, when all we see is one inch of this narrow lane of time that Amy referred to. It is easy to judge him when we forget the meadow of eternity.

So what did Amy do when she was plagued by the temptation to judge God? She meditated on his truth. One verse that helped her heart turn in these moments was Psalm 25:10: “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness.” She wrote: “All does not mean ‘all—except this especially difficult and painful path.’ All must mean all. So, your path with its unexplained sorrow or turmoil, and mine with its sharp flints and briers—and both our paths, with their unexplained perplexity, their sheer mystery—they are his paths, on which he will show himself loving and faithful. Nothing else, nothing less.” 

Amy wrote 16 devotional books during the time she was bedridden. They speak of the struggle to believe in our good and powerful God and the importance of rooting our feet in his bedrock of truth. During those twenty years, Amy grew to know the tender heart of God for her. He did not love her because she had worked hard. He did not love her because she rescued so many children. He did not love her for what she produced. He loved her because he had committed himself to her by his steadfast love. This season taught Amy that suffering is the means by which we gain the greatest of gifts—God himself. 

What path has God put you on that causes you to struggle to believe that he is good? What situation or circumstance are you facing that tempts your heart to see him as powerless to save? What bedrock truth does your soul need to firmly plant its feet upon to weather the waves ahead? Spend some time thinking through your situation. What might God, in his unfailing and steadfast love, have for you within this season? What truth do you need to preach to your soul about who he is, who you are, and what he has promised to do in and through you?  

Then take heart, beloved child! For your Heavenly Father has sent your older Brother Jesus to overcome the world for you. His Spirit resides within you to finish the good work that has begun in your life. He is faithful and he will do it.