Sound of Surviving Blog

     As someone who battles daily with chronic illness, there are many days when I wake up, and I’m not sure I can keep going. It feels like life is throwing too much at me, all at once. Those are the days when I often wonder what God’s doing, how could He be using any of this for good? It’s all so awful, the pain, the fatigue, the out-and-out exhaustion. I know that the Bible tells us everything we go through is for a reason, a purpose, but there have been numerous times where I find myself wondering how God can use anything I’m going through. It all seems too broken, too messy, too shattered, to be used for anything good.

     Then I read a quote from Vaneetha Risner the other day, where she wrote, “We are all in the middle of the stories God is writing”. And then it hit me, no one really knows how everything will turn out in our lives. We just have to trust God, the author and creator of not just our lives, but the world.

     Thankfully for us, God isn’t your typical author in that He actually cares what happens to his children/characters; He’s not just up in Heaven throwing in plot twists for no apparent reason, or to keep his readers on the edge of their seats. No, God’s plot twists are methodically placed throughout our stories, to bring glory to Him, so that others can see His light shining through us.

     And he doesn’t, like most authors, throw in a plot twist and just say, let’s see how they handle this one. No, God walks by our side each step of the way. Through all of life’s hurdles, God is walking alongside of us, silently giving us the strength and encouragement to jump over them.

     Yes, life is going to be hard, and I’m sure I’ll find myself wondering at times how I can get through another day of my journey, yet another chapter of my story. But I trust that I will get through that next chapter of my life, no matter how shattering it may be, because I know the author. And as David reminds us in Psalm 121:1-2, “I lift my eyes unto the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of Heaven and Earth.” God is the maker of the entire universe. A synonym for maker, according to Webster Thesaurus, the synonyms for “maker” include author, architect, designer, and mastermind, to name a few.

     The synonym there that stands out most to me is author. God is the author of the whole universe, of everyone in it, and their lives. His most famous book, the Bible, contains thousands of inspiring stories of everyday people who simply trusted in Him, and made it. As one of my friends said the other night, “We never know who our story may inspire someday.” God is still writing our story; he’s not finished yet. So we just have to keep trusting God, the author of our lives, and hand the pen over to him, and be amazed.