Where Is God When Things Don’t Work Out?

There are headaches and there are heartaches. We are fine with grabbing two white pills for our head, but what do we do when our heart hurts? What do we do when the floor drops out and we feel alone?

There was a ride at the fair that I used to love. It was a big cylinder that you climb in and stand against the wall to be spun faster and faster until your body pressed against the wall and the floor would drop out beneath you. Yet you would remain there, plastered to the wall, held there by centrifugal force amazed at the magic happening around you.

In life, we don’t always see the magic. There is no ride and when the floor drops out we fall — hard.

A marriage ends.

Your loved one dies.

The job is gone.

Your baby is sick.

I wish I could say things always work out, I really do. Things don’t always work out, and sometimes there is no Hallmark card or Bible verse that feels like it will fix it.

The bumps in life, the potholes and the sinkholes they feel like they can swallow us up.

We fight the fall.

We rage against the struggle.

But maybe the fall isn’t the worst thing. Maybe it’s ok to fall if we fall into the arms of Jesus.

Call out. Cry out. Scream real and loud. Weep silent and long. Whatever you need to do, you can do it with Jesus. Nothing you go through can shake Him. Nothing surprises Him.

He is the rock beneath the floor that falls out.

He is walking beside you up that mountain you feel you can’t climb.

He is the embrace when you feel you are being swallowed whole.

When things start looking bad, when they start going wrong, we forget who He is. Just because things don’t work out doesn’t mean God isn’t at work.

I can’t pretend to know what you are facing today, friend. But I can tell you that you never have to face it alone.

When you can’t get out of the pit, Jesus climbs down to get you. He holds your broken pieces until they begin to heal back together.

You only have to let Him.

What are you facing today that feels hard?

Let’s remind one another of where He is in those places.